08 December 2015
Project Delays in UK Construction Continue to Worsen
According to the latest construction industry data, 60 per cent of projects were delivered to clients late in the past year.
This alarming performance is in sharp contrast to figures just released by the Portakabin Group, which has now completed 99.7 per cent of projects on time and on budget every year since 2003.
The UK Industry Performance Report is compiled by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; Constructing Excellence; Glenigan, and the CITB. The research uses key performance indicators to allow construction companies to benchmark their performance against the rest of the industry.
According to the report, project delays in UK construction have worsened in the last year with only 40 per cent of projects overall being delivered on time. On budget completions have failed to improve in the past year - just 69 per cent of overall projects were delivered on cost or better.
According to Simon Ambler, Director of the Portakabin Group, "This latest report is a valuable assessment of the state of construction in the UK and highlights important challenges for the sector to address. The percentage of UK projects delivered on time was one of the worst performance levels ever recorded by this survey. Whilst there was little change in the number of projects being delivered on budget or better, the figures still give cause for concern, but we are pleased to report, are very different to the performance of the Portakabin Group."
"Off-site construction is highly predictable, which helps construction clients reduce risk with far greater assurance of completion on time and on budget - often to extremely challenging deadlines and on complex, fully operational sites. Our aim is to hand over every project on programme and on cost, and to deliver a genuinely customer-focused service throughout the Group."
"Looking ahead, the growth in workload across the construction industry is predicted to continue as the economy strengthens. The sector has to invest in better training to improve the pool of talent and address the skills gap and thereby improve productivity and service levels."
"We are working hard to upskill our workforce and new initiatives include strong commitments to apprenticeships across the business; extensive customer service excellence training, and the launch of a Portakabin Group Training Academy."
As the leading specialist in modular construction across the UK and operating in six other European countries, the Portakabin Group offers the widest range of buildings for a diverse variety of sectors including manufacturing, utilities, commercial, education, healthcare, and transport. Projects range from bespoke architectural schemes to short-term applications accommodating from 10 to 1,000 people, and smaller, ready-to-go buildings that can be sited and in use within a day.
Editor's Note
Portakabin, Portakabin Group, Yorkon, Foremans, Portaloo, Konstructa and Oecon are registered trademarks. Portakabin must only be used to refer to modular buildings that are known to have been manufactured by the Portakabin Group. Please note, Portakabin is not a generic term.
