Improving private sector productivity

The Construction Productivity Taskforce (CPT) was set up in 2020 by Be the Business to tackle the sector’s long-standing productivity challenge, Alan Bunting, former head of development delivery at British Land told GIRI members at the summer members’ meeting. It brought together clients, contractors, designers and supply chain partners to develop and share practical evidence-based approaches that deliver change at the project, organisation and industry level.

“The data shows that productivity in the construction industry hasn’t changed since the 1970s,” said Alan. “In fact, in terms of multi-factor productivity, it’s worse – we’re not as productive as we were in the 70s. Moreover, between 1997 and 2019, productivity in construction has been slammed into reverse gear. It hasn’t experienced any of the uptick seen in industries like communications and manufacturing. Which means this sector is leaving a significant number of pound notes on the table.”

The CPT therefore set out to identify actionable interventions for SMEs to help them improve their productivity. “The challenge was to do that in a way that ensured we could galvanise a decent proportion of the construction industry and get them aligned.”

The CPT sought to learn from the industry’s biggest players what they were doing right and take this forward to identify enablers to boost industry-level productivity. Three initial workstreams were identified as interventions that could improve productivity, delivered between 2022 and 2025: 

1. measuring productivity in order to improve it, 
2. the development of a private-sector construction playbook setting out the key policies and guidance for how projects are procured and delivered in the private sector, and
3. deploying the tools identified in the playbook on live pilot sites. 

Measuring productivity

Two pilot sites were selected for the measurement of productivity, one run by Landsec along with Mace, Sir Robert McAlpine and Bryden Wood, and the other run by British Land with Skanska. “The aim was to define exactly what productivity meant on these two sites and achieve a common alignment.”

Alan explained that productivity was measured according to five metrics:

• Productivity – the value of the work, excluding non-construction costs, over the number of hours worked. 
• Waste generated – measured in cubic metres per £100,000 of project value. 
• Pre-manufactured value – the gross capital site labour cost versus the gross capital costs
• Right first time  –  the cost of rework versus the gross capital costs. 
• Tool type – time spent on productive work versus overall time spent on the site. 

The outcome was the development of a seven-step framework to help construction organisations improve construction site productivity. 

The private-sector construction playbook

Trust and productivity: Private sector construction playbook was published in November 2022. It seeks to drive a step change within the private sector in the way that projects are commissioned, procured, delivered and operated by creating a platform for change.

The playbook proposes 10 drivers for success:

• forming effective partnerships
• adopting portfolio and longer-term contracting
• outcome-based approaches
• embedding digital information flows and technologies
• early supply-chain involvement
• benchmarking objectives
• allocating risk fairly and appropriately
• paying fairly
• assessing the economic and financial standing of suppliers
• innovation and continuous improvement

“We aligned each of the chapters with the key drivers to flesh out the tools we believe could be used to help within the concept and design, the procurement, the construction, and then the handover. It is a guide as opposed to a specification, and you can use some of it or all of it. There are developers out there who mandate it within all their contracts. Others use a few of these tools to get the best output.” 

Pilot sites

The three pilot site case studies launched in 2025, with measurement data gathered by the University of Cambridge with the aim of gaining practical insights into the deployment of both the productivity measurement and the playbook. One of these pilot sites was 1 Broadgate, a £300 million commercial office development in London, completed by British Land and Sir Robert McAlpine. 

“On this project, we focused on slipform and cladding, looking at the installation rates, production cycle times and labour productivity, following the Cambridge Performance and Productivity Framework,” said Alan. “Outcomes included producing a factory-like approach to slipform, which meant it overachieved on its programme. The cladding works were also completed on programme, using a floor-by-floor assembly line that ensured there was a decoupling between the need for the crane and the installation itself.”

Next steps

The CPT is now entering phase two, said Alan, which is focusing on designing for productivity. “Design is a huge proportion of the overall productivity on site. So we put together a group of designers, project managers, QSs, architects and engineers, put them alongside contractors, subcontractors and the supply chain, and we are developing a series of 10 papers to explore improving productivity through design.”

Each paper in the series, which will be published over six months, is designed to provide a focused, five-minute read offering practical insights, industry perspective and clear direction. Each will involve different collaborators. The first, The case for change, was published in April, while an upcoming paper, The contractor’s top ten, will see the likes of GIRI, Skanska, Morrisroe, and Mace share the key things they wish clients and designers knew about improving construction productivity.

Phase two workstreams

Alan explained that training is a key workstream of phase two. “This focuses on ensuring that the workforce is suitably equipped with the right tools, and there is definite alignment here with what GIRI is doing. Outputs include targeted training programs, CPD modules, collaborations with educational institutions, and continuous impact measurement.”

Automation and AI is another workstream. “This is a technology-focused workstream exploring how AI, automation, and digital innovation can drive productivity, reduce risk, and improve data collection across the construction lifecycle. We are looking at how we can use some of the digital tools that are out there to take some of the burden off the people involved in that process and gather the right data where it’s required.”

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