In the past twelve months, we have seen businesses across all industries face the unexpected challenges of a global pandemic. Some industries, such as eCommerce, have thrived during these difficult times, while others have suffered hard from drastic drops in demand and reduced availability of workers – not to mention trade restrictions in conjunction with Brexit as well.

Challenges of the Coronavirus outbreak

Unfortunately, the construction industry is one sector that has been hit particularly hard by the Coronavirus outbreak, with government guidelines putting a stop to construction work early in 2020. Construction workers were able to return to work in May of last year, but there have been many more stops and starts in the past few months.

The Office of National Statistics reported that construction activity fell by 2.6% in Q1 of 2020, and by 5.9% in March, with Constructionline reporting that 47% of the 4500 firms they surveyed had reduced their activity by 80% or more in April.

The Construction Products Association estimated that construction output would fall by 25% in 2020 with the largest falls in activity occurring in:

  • Private housing – 42%
  • Commercial construction – 36%
  • Private repair and maintenance – 35%

There are some positives though

However, with all this said, there were some positives to come out of this. For example, a large number of construction firms have stepped up and worked together to create the Nightingale hospitals and many also managed to continue vital work on infrastructure projects. The whole industry also rallied round and managed to donate around £1m of PPE to the NHS frontline.

In fact, many people believe that the construction sector is leading the way – through their adherence to social distancing, the use of technology to stay connected, 24-hour working to ensure workers are spread out, and sharing best practice throughout the sector in order to ensure their survival.

Recovery will take time. After all, the built environment and construction sector is an ecosystem that relies on a common supply chain to deliver, which in turn relies on demand from contractors, domestic RMI, housebuilders and specialists.

Roadmap to Recovery

Following on from this, and in the light of the lockdown restrictions being eased, the

Construction Leadership Council pulled together a Roadmap to Recovery strategy aimed at driving the recovery of the built environment and construction sectors to help the national economic recovery for the UK as a whole. This was split into three phases:

  • Phase One: Restart – increasing output, maximising employment and minimising disruption
  • Phase Two: Reset – driving demand, increasing productivity and strengthening capability
  • Phase Three: Reinvent – transforming the industry by driving better value, collaboration and partnership

Part of this Roadmap is based on the integration of new technologies into projects and programmes to minimise output loss, and contribute to improved industry productivity in the longer term – and this is where BIM services come in. BIM also supports an increase in collaboration between the construction industry and its clients to deliver benefits across the board and enable the more efficient delivery of projects.

With this in mind, The CAD Room is perfectly placed to help your construction company to get back on their feet, as we are the UK’s leading company for BIM consultants. To find out more about our complete BIM service for the building industry, please contact us on 0161 427 0348 or email us at office@thecadroom.com