By Heather Holbrook, director at Thomas & Adamson, part of Egis Group
It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, you can still see the impact it has had on the construction sector today in a variety of different ways.
Undoubtedly, it almost goes without saying that many of the experiences of the pandemic were negative. There were, nevertheless, important lessons to learn from that which should be factored into projects now that we are on the other side.
At the same time, there were also some positives to take on a number of fronts – not least in terms of attitudes towards sustainability and work habits. Where possible, we should look to maintain these, and even build upon them, in the future.
Cost inflation and supply chains
Perhaps the starkest and longest-standing issue has been the effect the pandemic years have had on costs. Access to materials became trickier, as supply chains stalled as restrictions were placed on the movement of people and goods, while Brexit and the conflict in Ukraine compounded the issue. Much of the UK’s glass, steel, and aluminium comes from EU nations – for example, the UK is the largest importer of recyclable glass from Europe, accounting for around 36% of total imports.
Those factors led to a spike in the cost of goods and materials, peaking at 10% year-on-year construction cost growth in 2022, according to Statista figures. While prices were normally held for up to 90 days prior to the rise in inflation, we saw cases where they would only be held for 24 hours – an incredibly challenging situation to deal with from a cost management perspective.
While that has steadied, price hikes are still a feature of construction today – as the last UK PMI Construction report showed. As a result, monitoring and controlling costs have become more important than ever during the lifecycle of a project and there is a growing realisation that appropriate contingencies in budgets need to be made to accommodate unpredictable bouts of inflation.
Labour shortages and the next generation
Perhaps the other most obvious construction challenge of the pandemic years was labour availability. Many workers from EU countries working in the UK returned to their home nations and, with Brexit rules implemented at the end of 2020, decided not to return. That has exacerbated the existing skills gap – the share of migrant workers in construction fell from 10.7% in 2018 to 9.8% in 2021 – and comes at a time when the sector needs more than 250,000 additional workers by 2028 to meet demand.
With different lockdown rules across the country, there were also uneven regional consequences across the UK’s four nations. In Scotland, for example, there were longer periods of lockdown which resulted in many construction workers – particularly those who were migrants – deciding to move to England where projects could progress while work stalled north of the border.
Today, that means we need to do more to encourage more people into the sector – whether they are learning a trade or taking up a profession such as quantity surveying, project management, or engineering. While it is great to see more UK undergraduates taking on disciplines within construction, we should also encourage entrants from overseas. The visa system should reflect the needs we have today, with an emphasis on key industries – whether they are currently working or are students looking to train or qualify in the UK.
A greater focus on ESG
While the pandemic was an extremely tough period, it also led to some unexpected positive developments for the construction industry. One of them has, undoubtedly, been the greater focus on sustainability, as more corporates focus on delivering ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies.
As a result, we have seen an emphasis placed on a more environmentally friendly approach to construction – whether through the use of materials, green energy sources, or a reduction of on-site waste. Inevitably these measures come with a premium, but it has been positive to see the industry push for more sustainable practices – and that will only become more important as net zero targets move even closer.
Resilience in the sector
Another positive was the resilience that the construction sector demonstrated throughout those years. Despite being unable to go on site for weeks at a time, projects still managed to move forward in some capacity through remote meetings, which underpinned greater adoption of technology in the way we work, more generally.
Rather than travelling to all meetings or site inspections, using video to provide project updates is now commonplace. Documentation is held on the cloud to provide greater access and communication channels like MSTeams and WhatsApp are frequently used. While they seem like small changes now, these all required a shift in mindset that wouldn’t have happened without the pandemic and are helping deliver projects more efficiently.
Better balance
Perhaps just as importantly, the realisation that elements of the industry could adapt to remote working has led to a better work-life balance – at least from my experience of the companies we work with.
While it varies from business to business, and by role, construction as a whole feels more flexible than it has ever been. That can only be a positive development for attracting and retaining the quality of people who will help it to thrive into the future.
It may have been half a decade since the pandemic, but the construction sector is still being shaped by that experience today. While it’s important that we learn from the negatives, it’s just as important that we make sure the positives continue to be embraced in the next five years – and beyond.
