Constructing Excellence has called on the DTI to investigate the possibility of workers from the car industry doubling up as construction manufacturers to ease the industry鈥檚 skills crisis.

In a report sent to Elizabeth Whatmore, the DTI鈥檚 construction policy director, Constructing Excellence said workers could use skills developed in the automotive, aerospace and electronics sectors to construct buildings off-site.

In its report, Constructing Excellence claims that the industry is wasting 拢20bn a year through inefficiencies. It claims these figures could be improved if the industry made greater use of off-site manufacture.

The report lists a series of measures the DTI should take to improve productivity in construction, including:

  • Investigate the opportunity for the automotive, aerospace and electronics manufacturing sectors to diversify into production for the construction industry
  • Identify areas for the DTI to support skill transfer from other industries into the construction supply chain
  • Support a programme to encourage companies to make more use of off-site production.

The report adds that closer alignment with manufacturing would benefit all the industries concerned.

Construction is subject to the same threat as the automotive industry 鈥� the outflow of money from the UK economy

Constructing Excellence report

It says 鈥淐onstruction is subject to the same threat as the automotive and electronics industries 鈥� the outflow of money from the UK economy 鈥� because components and materials can be produced in low labour cost economies and assembled for construction in the UK.鈥�

The report comes a week after 星空传媒 revealed that workers made redundant from MG Rover鈥檚 Longbridge factory had been taken on by Midlands contractors.