The British Condition: Construction

As an architect, I am saddened to say that the construction industry, as a general statement, is not only renowned,  but actually accepted for its failings. Horror stories of project delays and wildly escalating construction costs are common-place worldwide.  A recent study of cost overrun found that 9 out of 10 international construction projects today have underestimated costs and that overruns of 50 to 100% were common,  the main cause has been identified as inadequate data and lack of  strategic business planning.

Public projects are the seemingly worst offenders such as The Sydney Opera House which was 15 times over budget or the Channel Tunnel which exceeded 80% overspend during construction. Or of course, the classic example of UK cost & time management gone mad: the new Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood, Edinburgh.  Designed by Enric Miralles, this iconic building which should have represented a new era in Scottish politics, a symbol of National pride was scheduled for completion in 2001, but finally opened its doors at the end of 2004, over 3 years late and with an estimated final cost of £414 million, which was between 4000-10000% over budget. 

Taking all of this into account, what should concern us all is that n 2005, RIBA, the UK’s architectural representatives (of which I am one), awarded the Scottish Parliament Building the UK’s highest accolade in architecture: The Stirling Prize. Awarded annually, this prize recognises ‘excellence in architecture’ for ‘the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in that year’ and laureates receive the tidy sum of £20,000 for their ‘achievement’.  Now am I missing something???  Or did this project fail on so many levels that it’s impossible to call this an architectural success or is this just another example of The British Condition? How it is that the UK has come to accept that design and construction runs late and exceeds budget?

Correlating figures from the Office of National Statistics (UK) taken between 2005 and 2010 give a clear indication of this ‘British Condition’.  It is recorded that during the past 5 years, client satisfaction for the service they received is almost reaching 80% satisfaction for the same period where just 44% of projects were delivered on time and only 46% on budget, and even more worryingly more than 25% of these rated an unacceptable level of defects at the point of handover,  and yet we were satisfied.

In order to compete on an international level, it is essential that the British construction industry demands higher and greater efficiency from the sector. The development of international consultancy services has been proven to establish more demanding UK project milestones (and penalties) in line with international expectations to accelerate UK developers into a competitive position within the international construction marketplace.  

Text: Heather Graves

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