Peers are to investigate offsite manufacturing as a potential solution to the UK construction industry’s poor productivity.
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has announced that it will conduct an inquiry into offsite manufacture for construction, noting that the industry’s productivity currently lags behind other sectors.
The Committee will consider the potential benefits of offsite manufacture and any drawbacks and obstacles to its wider use.
It will also look at how government policy, particularly around public procurement, might need to change to encourage economically and environmentally sustainable practices that could facilitate offsite manufacture.
The Committee will ask questions including:
- What are the opportunities offered by offsite manufacture for construction? What are the drawbacks to offsite manufacture for construction?
- What factors are likely to influence clients, architects, design engineers, contractors and the supply chain to choose or not to choose offsite manufacture?
- Can the benefits of standardisation and factory manufacture be realised without hampering architectural ambition? If so, how?
- What R&D is needed, and by whom, to fully realise the potential benefits of offsite manufacture?
- What changes could be made to public procurement processes to encourage more sustainable practises in the construction industry and facilitate offsite manufacture?
Lord Patel, chair of the Committee said: “"The construction industry is vital to solving some of the pressing problems facing the UK, such as a lack of affordable housing and replacing ageing infrastructure.
“While offsite manufacturing is not a new idea, the level of technology now available means it is much more viable as a modern method of construction than it might have been in the past.
"The inquiry will consider how offsite manufacture might contribute to improving productivity within the construction industry and how it will fit in with the Construction sector deal announced by the government.
“The Committee encourage all those who are able to inform the inquiry to submit evidence."
The Committee is inviting written evidence on the issue up until a deadline of 26 April. It will start taking oral evidence this month.
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