A new report from construction and property management consultant, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) Scotland has suggested the industry is moving towards outcome-based procurement, but asks, Is it ready?Â
In its sixth annual Procurement Trends report, ‘Creating a Value Chain’, RLB explores how industry volatility has shifted behaviours and working practices. At the same time, clients are asking more of supply chains.
The report’s data shows that 61% of tenders make it clear the value selection criteria to be used, and 35% of contractors believe that better outcomes will result from the recently implemented Procurement Act.
However, the report also reveals that while the industry is keen to embrace outcome-based procurement, it might not be ready for the transformation of procurement as it struggles to define the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of outcome-based procurement.
More than 40% of contractors are seeing an uptick in collaborative procurement practices, and 25% increased appetite for sharing risks. Whilst both are increasing, RLB said the rate of increase is slowing since last year, suggesting the market is maturing and embedding these new found behaviours.
Contractors’ biggest procurement concerns for the next 12 months are with the impacts around the Spending Review allocations and Autumn Budget, but with concerns over supply chain robustness greater amongst larger contractors.
Large contracts are also shunning fixed price risk, whilst smaller projects have remained broadly static. Projects over £100 million are now offering clients shorter fixed price durations, with a reported 14% increase in the use of fluctuations clauses.
The report reveals early contractor involvement is becoming mainstream. Two-stage tenders, now used on 28% of projects, are matching single-stage routes, and that increases to 65% of larger projects. Whilst design and build contracts remain popular at 65%, bespoke contracts have grown to 6%, the highest since RLB began to track trends.
The drive for greener construction is also increasingly evident in tenders. 31% now set clear sustainable targets, up from 23% last year. But translating targets into delivered results is described as ‘patchy’, with one in three projects that define targets missing them.
When it comes to sustainability, 22% of contractors are now being asked to measure performance at the end of the defects period, but RLB said that leaves the majority of projects either not defining targets, not having coherent data to measure them, or not involving the supply chain in measuring them.
Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is seeing increased adoption rates, with the average project realising 24%, a 2% rise from last year’s survey. Barriers to adoption have switched to be more economically focused rather than client or design team resistance.
Delivering outcomes requires good data, and yet the report’s findings suggest that procurement may actually be ‘killing’ valuable data. Firstly, information requirements are not being captured adequately at the tender stage with 28% of tenders not defining any requirements and only 22% defining them well.
RLB Scottish Partner, Martin McConnell, said, “Scottish contractors are increasingly unwilling to continuously absorb risk, prompting a rise in bespoke contracts and a decline in fixed-price durations on large projects. This trend underscores the need for a more relational approach to procurement.”
 To read RLB’s full Creating a Value Chain Procurement Trends report, visit https://www.rlbinsights.com/reports/procurement-trends-report-2025/?utm_source=press&utm_medium=pressrelease&utm_campaign=ProcurementTrends2025
