The Construction Leadership Council

Mission statement

The CLC’s mission is to provide sector leadership to the construction industry.

Our main objective is to develop solutions that meet the 2025 challenges.  We work with government and industry organisations to promote industry initiatives that will deliver:

  • 33% reduction in cost
  • 50% reduction in programme
  • 50% reduction in carbon emissions
  • 50% reduction in trade gap

The CLC also convenes the industry response to urgent issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic.  We have restructured ourselves to bring together the industry, pooling resources and working collaboratively to support industry change.  We have also forged an effective working relationship with government, highlighted by their engagement in developing the Industry Recovery Plan.

Our sector is massive, and we are set to play a vital role in the economic rebalancing of the UK.  Our output comprises 8% of GDP, and we employ over 10% of the UK workforce.  In addition, over 90% of the industry is comprised of SMEs.  The homes, schools, hospitals, and railways that we are set to deliver will underpin the UK’s future low-carbon growth ambitions.

At its best the UK construction sector is world class.  We have a global reputation for our architectural and engineering skills and for our ability to deliver low carbon and sustainable solutions for the built environment.  However, across the sector, we face major challenges associated with the updating of our business models and skills, so that events like the Grenfell Tragedy do not occur again.

Our mission is to work with our industry colleagues to address fundamental business challenges associated with our cyclical workload and our ability to invest in the supply chain and our people.  We aim to find opportunities to invest in skills, innovation, and technology in order to deliver greater productivity, drive greater efficiencies and deliver better value outcomes for our clients.  Above all, CLC will work in collaboration with the Green Construction Board to ensure that all of our work is consistent with the UK meeting our Net Zero Carbon commitments.

The CLC continues to focus its innovation journey on three critical enablers:

  • DIGITAL – delivering better, more certain outcomes by using BIM enabled ways of working
  • MANUFACTURING – increasing the proportion of off-site manufacture to improve productivity, quality and safety
  • WHOLE-LIFE PERFORMANCE – getting more out of new and existing assets through the use of smart technologies.

Our work in this space is supported by the Construction Sector Deal.  We are working closely with our partners on the Transforming Construction Challenge to drive the widest adoption of innovation.

The restructured CLC has twelve workstreams that work collaboratively to address the biggest issues facing the industry including skills, building safety and business models across all sectors of the industry. We are bringing together the best in the industry to deliver the change that we desire for ourselves and our clients.

The Team

The Construction Leadership Council is co-chaired by the Minister for Business and Industry, Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy) and Mark Reynolds, Group Chairman and CEO at Mace together with his deputy co-chair Richard Robinson, Chief Executive Officer, Atkins UK and Europe.  The CLC has three component parts:

EXECUTIVE – the Executive comprises the co-chairs, industry representatives and a secretariat provided by BEIS.  The role of the Executive is to set strategy and to monitor progress against the CLC’s key objectives

WORK STREAMS – Work streams are led by industry representatives working to an agreed programme to deliver industry change.  Some workstreams address the needs of segments of the industry such as infrastructure or house building.  Other workstreams address industry-wide priorities, including Skills, Building Safety and Net Zero Carbon. Further details of Workstream teams can be found here.

SENIOR ADVISORS – Senior advisors, including representatives of the devolved regions, are consulted on a regular basis to confirm that the work of the CLC is meeting industry priorities.

 

Council Co-chair

Mark Reynolds

Mace
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Council Co-Chair

Nusrat Ghani

Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
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Deputy Co-chair

Richard Robinson

Atkins UK and Europe
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Sector deal

The industry and government agreed an ambitious partnership through the 2018 Construction Sector Deal, that aims to transform the sector’s productivity through innovative technologies and a more highly skilled workforce.

This supports an ambitous transformation enabling the construction sector to deliver:

  • BETTER-PERFORMING BUILDINGS that are built quicker and at lower cost;
  • LOWER ENERGY USE and cheaper bills from homes and workplaces;
  • BETTER JOBS including an increase to 25,000 apprenticeships a year by 2020 (20,500 achieved);
  • BETTER VALUE FOR TAX PAYERS and investors from the £600bn infrastructure and construction pipeline;
  • A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE SECTOR that exports more, targeting the $2.5tn global infrastructure market.

Major commitments included the £170m investment in the Transforming Construction Challenge, Government backing to the development of innovative new building solutions, reforms to the CITB and support to training and the development of improved contract and payment processes.

Further details of the Construction Sector Deal can be found here.

Industry Recovery Plan

As part of the construction sector response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CLC led an industry-wide initiative to develop a Recovery Plan that addressed opportunities and challenges for all parts of the industry and which set out collaborative solutions led by both government and industry.

The Industry Recovery Plan has three phases spread over 18 months:

  • Restart
  • Reset
  • Reinvent

The Industry Recovery Plan Programme is being delivered by four working groups representing critical parts of the industry including the infrastructure and repair and maintenance segment.

The Industry Recovery Plan can be found here.

Green Construction Board

What do we do?

Originating in 2011, the Green Construction Board (GCB) is the sustainability workstream of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC). David Pinder, CEO of Baxi, was appointed Chair in April 2018 and the Board has undergone a review and refresh of its membership and activities since then and which continues. A co-secretariat is provided by BEIS and the Construction Products Association.

The GCB’s priority and main focus is to advice on the regulatory, policy and technical framework required to overcome key barriers to the delivery of a zero carbon and zero waste built environment (both buildings and infrastructure) and to identify the commercial, jobs and export opportunities that such a clean growth, zero carbon, zero waste economy requires.

The main Board meets 4 times a year. Government officials attend from BEIS, MHCLG, Defra, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and Innovate UK. There is industry representation from across the construction industry.

The Board establishes task groups as required, currently these include a Buildings Energy Task Group, a Resources & Waste Task Group and an Infrastructure Working Group.

Why is this important?

Energy from fossil fuels consumed in the construction and operation of buildings accounts for approximately half of the UK’s emissions of carbon dioxide. Reducing carbon, waste and other impacts from the Built Environment is an important strand of the GCB’s work.  Tackling climate change and environmental degradation provides significant economic opportunities for the construction sector through both increased exports and better productivity.

How will we achieve this?

Specifically, the GCB will:

  • Have leadership and an expert advisory role to government on policy creation, implementation, regulatory matters and strategy.
  •  Champion the business opportunities of addressing the challenge of sustainable construction.
  •  Promote the uptake of innovation addressing the targets in Construction 2025 and the priorities of the Construction Sector Deal.
  •  Take into account the UN Sustainability Goals through its workstream’s aims.
  •  Promote the inclusion of sustainability concepts in procurement processes measuring whole life value.
  • Promote the uptake of the necessary skills for a skilled workforce delivering sustainable construction.