Construction Innovation Hub vision delivered with the Value Toolkit

It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since we launched the Hub, with a vision to develop and deliver innovative, synergistic solutions to the increasingly complex challenges facing the construction and built environment sectors.  Over that time, we’ve worked with more than 600 organisations, industry bodies, practitioners and academics to rethink approaches to construction and the built environment, move the debate forward and help shape policy.  

The collaborative, innovative ethos of our work is epitomised by the Value Toolkit. Decision making in construction has been historically driven by how much something cost, or how long it took to build. A project’s entire value was then measured against those two benchmarks. We have reframed the definition of value, and how it can be measured, through the Value Toolkit. 

The Toolkit delivers a laser-like focus on project outcomes that delivers value beyond the bottom line, and positively affect communities and those who live in them for decades to come. It also improves efficiency and will ensure a more collaborative relationship between clients and suppliers throughout the whole life of a project. 

From the response we’ve received from stakeholders, and those who were early adopters of the Toolkit, it’s clear that there is not only an appetite for the type of holistic, platform-based decision making that the Toolkit delivers, but a real and pressing need for it. That’s why, as the Hub’s programme draws to a close and we turn to the next phase, we will work to embed the Value Toolkit in central government to ensure value-based decision making becomes the new normal and helps shape policy so right decisions made at right time to encourage innovation. This will ensure a joined-up approach to project decision making and will encourage actions that supports low-carbon, higher quality solutions to the challenges we face.  

I’m proud that the Value Toolkit has contributed to and shifted the policy debate around the built-environment and construction sectors and shows how we can deliver practical solutions that deliver positive impact. With the Value Toolkit, we can help to grow the economy, boost our path to net-zero and tackle the increasingly stark economic challenges we face.  The Hub set out to drive and accelerate change in the Built Environment sector, and that’s what we’ve done. The next step is to set high ambitions and work together to deliver them – and given the commitment, talent and desire we’ve seen throughout this project, I’m in no doubt that’s exactly what we will do.