I bought my previous house “off-plan”. When I paid the not insubstantial deposit, my “house” was an artist’s impression in a glossy brochure, and a plot of muddy Earth. When we finally moved in, ours was the first house to be occupied on our road. It would be three weeks until we had a functional telephone line; three more until we had a fixed Internet connection. Apparently, the fact that actual people might live in these houses and that they might need to communicate with the outside world had somehow been overlooked.
Before you dismiss this as a miserable man and his First World problems, I would suggest that this minor and long-resolved inconvenience is – in fact – indicative of all what was (and that remains) a major failing of the construction and demolition sectors.
This week, the construction press and the parts of the national media not fixated upon the cost of Boris Johnson’s curtains have been covering the news that the UK construction industry could see its current buoyancy curtailed by a shortage of materials. The cause of that shortage, allegedly, is the HS2 high speed rail project that will provide greater capacity between the nation’s capital, the Midlands, and the North of England.
My question, therefore, is why have materials suppliers been taken by surprise by a mammoth project that has rarely been out of the news in almost a decade? HS2 has been the subject of controversy and discussion since it was first mooted. It is more than four years since the project received a Royal Assent that removed the final obstacle standing in the way of its construction.
At that time, I attended an industry briefing in which several stakeholders were able to identify precisely how many excavators such an undertaking might require; how many scrapers; how many articulated dumptrucks; and how many people.
Did the materials suppliers think that hundreds of kilometres of concrete and steel would be magically transported from a previously undiscovered dimension; or that it would be knitted from hemp and bonded by unicorn tears?
And before anyone attempts to play the COVID card by way of explanation, let us not forget that the construction sector was afforded key worker status and was able to work pretty much throughout the pandemic. COVID-19 can be blamed for many things. But a lack of foresight and planning is not one of them.
This is not an isolated incident. How many times have you – as a demolition professional – bid for and won a contract months and even years in advance and then been given just a few days’ notice to deploy men and machines? What were clients and main contractors waiting for? A shift in wind direction? An alignment of the planets? A divine signal?
If you’re tempted at this point to nod sagely and think that the demolition sector is immune to such a lack of planning, think again.
I know of several demolition training providers that run courses on a Saturday or a Sunday. This is partly due to the fact that the men and women sitting the courses couldn’t find the time to attend during work hours. But, in many instances, this is because a new contract is scheduled to start the following Monday and the demolition contactor has just realised that the competence cards held by his or her workforce have expired.
And all of this is not just a matter of inconvenience. If I am asked to write a paid article or to film a paid video and I am given sufficient time, I will charge one price. If, however, I am required to drop everything I am doing to undertake a fast-turnaround project, my price will go up. Trust me. Those materials suppliers warning of potential shortages will be simultaneously rubbing their hands together.
A failure to plan will not just impact upon deadlines; it will impact upon bottom lines too.
