INDUSTRY WATCH
THE COUNTRY’S RATE
OF HOME OWNERSHIP
HAS FALLEN BY NEARLY
10% SINCE 2016 AND THE
AVERAGE PRICE OF A HOME
ROSE MORE THAN 50%
BETWEEN 2015 AND 2017.
W
ith the ongoing furore
regarding the lack of
affordable housing in the
UK, we must consider how technology
is increasingly helping the construction
industry to speed up new builds, reduce
time-consuming project management
tasks and assisting companies with
meeting report requirements in line with
government and regional stakeholders.
The UK has a well-established obsession
with housing at all levels of society, yet
the country’s rate of home ownership has
fallen by nearly 10% since 2016 and the
average price of a home rose more than
50% between 2015 and 2017.
There are many complex factors behind
these dynamics. They each essentially
come back to a lack of supply and one of
the main factors behind this is the time it
takes to actually build a house.
Based on data from The Independent,
the time it takes a developer to complete
a house has risen from 24 to 32 weeks
over the last few years. The Local
Government Association (LGA) paints an
even bleaker picture, estimating that it
now takes an average of 40 months from
planning permission to completion –
eight months longer than in 2014.
Again, there are many issues at play,
but everyone can agree on the fact
that building a house is an inherently
complex process. The construction
phase is only one part. There is also
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development strategy, pre-development
and site assessment, planning and then
managing the Request for Proposal (RFP)
process, among other steps.
Information management can
become a major hurdle also, especially
given that most property developers
have fewer than eight full-time staff
members. Though they rely on an
army of sub-contractors to facilitate
the building process, the bottleneck
of management and coordination is
largely on the shoulders of these small
direct staff members.
It’s no wonder that many firms, large
and small, are attempting a process
of digitisation to help streamline their
complex workflows.
It’s important to note that Digital
Transformation goes beyond the IT
office. The flow of information has to
include the project manager responsible
for projects from beginning to end;
from putting together the budget and
negotiated cost estimates, to arranging
work timetables, to finalising technical
and contract details with subcontractors.
These workflows must also take into
account adherence to health and safety
regulations around fire, ventilation, toxic
substances, access, sanitation and energy
efficiency (plus the documentation to
prove it), as well as archival storage, which
can be as long as 25 years based on
guidance from the UK National Archives.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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