The Value Toolkit will help clients procure buildings in a more balanced and inclusive way

Sam Stacey is Challenge Director for the Transforming Construction Programme at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He says the Construction Innovation Hub has laid the foundations for long-term change in industry.

Programmes take a long time to play out in the construction industry. So, what we’re now seeing are the beginnings of substantial change which will become increasingly visible over the next five years and well beyond. Over the past few years, the Construction Innovation Hub has been at the heart of a huge industry change programme. It has been driving forward procurement for value, championing the product platform approach to construction, and creating digital tools to help all parts of the industry use the latest digital techniques to improve the way they deliver.

I hope that the legacy of the Transforming Construction Programme, run through UKRI, will be a better built environment for everybody, so society as a whole will gain. Together these initiatives aim to create a much more sustainable built environment, better jobs, and more secure profit margins, to form the basis of a more sustainable industry.

The Programme has inspired many different people, groups and organisations to come together, and the construction industry increasingly needs to work in that way. It is incredibly interconnected with project responsibilities shared by architects, engineers, government agencies, builders, and subcontractors.

It is crucial for people think more broadly about the purpose of the assets they are creating.

The Value Toolkit now provides a practical model to help clients procure buildings in a more balanced and inclusive way. With the development of the Value Toolkit and across the Transforming Construction Programme, we have shown how different stakeholders can work effectively together and produce outcomes that are beneficial for all parties.

The foundations have been laid. Now is the time for all parties to use the tools, programmes and approaches created to leave behind the siloed attitudes of the past and work in collaboration with other stakeholder groups. That will be the sector’s legacy from the changes put in place over the past few years.