A Charter for Change
Building for Public Good
Ahead of the next General Election, decision makers must put the right policy and legislation in place to enable it to operate more efficiently - using the built environment as a catalyst to drive productivity, resilience and economic growth.
The charter sets out our key recommendations for the next UK government across areas such as devolution, skills development, strategic asset management and decarbonisation.
What is "Building for Public Good: A Charter for Change"?
We, the UK's leading public sector procurement authority, have launched 'Building for Public Good: A Charter for Change.'
Representing the voices of the public and private sectors across construction and the built environment, this charter calls for swift, decisive action from central government through a variety of legislative and policy changes, in order to accelerate the recovery of the public estate.
This document is a collaborative piece of work from the SCAPE Group; which includes input from the following companies: Arc Partnership, Construction Waste Portal, Lungfish Architects and SCAPE.
Within the charter, we advocate for using construction as the vehicle to create safer, greener assets and infrastructure, with notable proposals such as:
- Launching a national recruitment campaign for construction
- Introducing stringent waste reduction targets, and Reinstating the Chief
- Construction Advisor role within central government.
Continue reading to explore our key recommendations, or scroll to the end of the page to download the full document and find out how this will help to drive meaningful change.
Building a brighter future
Keep the construction skills and labour gap on the national agenda and build a brighter future for the industry.
Attracting new talent is crucial for driving innovation, maintaining quality standards, and meeting the demands of an evolving industry. We are calling on the government to invest in the future-proofed digital and green skills the UK needs to build safe, sustainable assets. We believe we can achieve this by:
- Elevating the construction skills agenda by spearheading a national recruitment campaign.
- Encouraging public-private secondments that attract and retain talent.
- Investing in future-proofed skills to build safe, sustainable assets.
Enabling efficient building
With an ageing public estate and the need to adapt in preparation for worsening climate change, building safety and efficiency is critical.
Investment in long-term strategic asset management strategies including digital portfolios will support smarter, more sustainable construction of built environment assets and infrastructure. We believe we can achieve this by:
- Reinstating the Chief Construction Advisor (CCA) role within Central Government to provide leadership and accountability.
- Fixing profit margins for contractors to create certainty in the market.
- Investing in a digital estate portfolio to improve asset management.
Empowering local government
Ensure local government organisations has adequate autonomy, clear direction and long-term funding to unlock regional growth and the best outcomes for local communities.
Continuing to support devolution, the government can ensure that urban planning and infrastructure projects meet the needs of residents and deliver targeted community benefits aligned to local needs. We believe this can be achieved by:
- Ensuring public sector strategic asset management functions are set up for success.
- Mandating the development and commissioning of local social value delivery strategies.
- Giving local authorities more devolution of powers and fair funding.
Supporting sustainable construction
Mitigate the environmental impact of construction waste and maximise the use of resource to create healthier, more resilient communities.
Our ask to the government is to mandate a more sustainable approach to construction by setting strict targets, embedding standards like PAS402 for waste management and refreshing the Environment Act. We believe we can achieve this by:
- Setting a national target and commercial incentives for the reduction of construction and demolition waste.
- Updating and enforcing building regulations to make sustainability non-negotiable.
- Strengthening funding initiatives to keep decarbonisation on the local agenda.
Download the Building for Public Good: A Charter for Change
Discover recommendations we believe are vital to improve the safety, sustainability, and economic productivity of the public estate for now and the future.
