Show Notes
This episode dives into one of construction’s biggest and most stubborn challenges: avoidable error.
Ten years on from its launch, the Get It Right Initiative (GIRI) has made real strides in raising awareness across the industry of the £21 billion lost to error every year.
Executive director Cliff Smith joins us to discuss what’s changed and what still needs to happen to reduce error and improve productivity in construction.
While the industry has made progress, significant challenges remain. A relentless focus on lowest-cost procurement and inconsistent competence standards continue to undermine quality and compliance across projects of all sizes.
These issues are particularly acute when viewed through the lens of a recent National Audit Office report, which criticised major energy-efficiency retrofit schemes for poor quality installations, weak government oversight, and an under-skilled workforce.
Smith believes that regulatory reforms such as the Building Safety Act can drive improvement, but only if leaders create environments where people feel confident to “push pause to avoid error” and call issues out early.
His message for the next decade is clear: rebuilding respect, pride and fairness across the industry is essential to ensure construction professionals have the motivation – and the support – to get it right first time.
More from 21st Century Construction
It’s been a year since Awaab’s Law came into force, setting strict new rules that registered social landlords must follow in dealing with damp and mould. The law was named after 2-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 of severe respiratory failure as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in his home in Rochdale. In the three years leading up to his death, the housing association took no action to deal with the mould, despite repeated notifications. Now, under Awaab’s Law, landlords have to respond to “emergency” mould hazards within 24 hours, and “significant” hazards within 15 days. Serious challenges Complying with the law poses serious technical, resource and public engagement challenges for landlords, and the sector is still feeling its way. To help, CIOB and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) joined forces to publish a useful playbook – Tackling damp and mould: Professional practice, cultural change and regulation in social housing – providing landlords with advice on recognising damp and mould, problem solving with residents and taking steps to resolve root causes. Update from the front In this month’s 21CC podcast, we speak to experts who contributed to the playbook, and provide an update from the frontline in the ongoing battle against this serious problem. We hear from Professor John Edwards FCIOB, who wrote the section on how to inspect properties for the hazard, and CIH policy lead Dr Eve Blezard on the need to avoid scapegoating residents. Claire Hawley and Leon Sidebottom, who lead customer engagement for Berneslai Homes, share what they learned about what works and what doesn’t in engaging tenants. And researchers Dr Graeme Sherriff and Philip Martin from the University of Salford’s Sustainable Housing and Urban Studies Unit share insights from their extensive research into how damp and mould affects households in Greater Manchester. We think this pacey podcast will interest people across a wide range of roles and responsibilities in the housing sector.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Plant trees down high streets. Retrofit schools, hospitals and care homes with external shading. Cool down beds and install ceiling fans. Legislate for minimum indoor temperatures. Ban glass towers. Paint roofs white. Set up a cooling refuge in every community. Reduce glazing and install windows that open.
For the last three years, DragonHeart Homes, a CIOB company in Peterborough that makes modular units for public-sector housing, has employed prisoners from HMP North Sea Camp, a Category-D open men’s prison outside Boston in Lincolnshire.
The end of April saw two major announcements regarding humanoid robots, a technology the construction sector hopes can work with the human workforce to improve productivity.