Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions
Rethinking Construction
CHAPTER 4
Enabling Improvement
- Substantial changes in the culture and structure of
UK construction are required to enable the improvements
in the project process that will deliver our ambition of
a modern construction industry. These include changes in
working conditions, skills and training, approaches to
design, use of technology and relationships between
companies.
- The Task Force believes that, to deliver the cultural
changes necessary to improve the project process, we must
start by valuing our people. Not only is the quality of
the workforce fundamental to the process of change in
construction, but also the way workers are treated. In
our view, the workforce is undervalued, under-resourced
and frequently treated as a commodity rather than the
industry's single most important asset.
Decent Working Conditions
- Some of the changes we are looking for
may take time to achieve. Others can be delivered almost
instantly. For example, the facilities which are
available to workers on site are typically appalling.
Clients and their customers do not like the poor image of
the industry in this respect any more than does the
industry itself. It does not require a big step to
provide workers with uniforms, proper facilities and rest
areas. Construction sites themselves should become
advertisements for the industry and the firms working on
them.
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Improving Conditions on Site
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As part of its Building for the Future
initiative Tesco Stores has introduced visitor
centres, on-site canteens, changing rooms and
showers on its sites. Construction materials are
stored in warehouses on site, reducing losses from
theft and damage. Site branding has been introduced
- all Tesco sites have identical blue hoardings and
workers on them wear branded overalls with both
Tesco and their employer's name. The increased team
spirit and commitment engendered by these simple
innovations have contributed to Tesco's achievement
of a 40% reduction in construction costs.
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- The health and safety record of construction is the
second worst of any industry. We have observed that most
accidents seem to occur when people are either not
properly trained or working out of process. The Task
Force has asked the Health and Safety Executive to
comment on our provisional targets for improvement,
published in February. Their advice was to ask the
industry to reflect not only on the purely welfare
consequences of a poor health and safety record but to
consider as well its cost in terms of lost work days,
potential prosecutions and, in extreme cases, the
enforced closure of construction sites.
Published 16 July 1998
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