Challenges Faced by the UK Construction Industry Today - Essay Example

Introduction There are significant challenges and opportunities facing the construction industry in United Kingdom, thereby requiring new ways of approaching the designs, buildings and operations for maintaining the infrastructure facilitating construction (Cannon, 2008, 1). However, there are designs of new technologies aimed at dealing with the challenges faced in the construction industry since it can have a significant effect on other sectors like maintenance, emergency planning, responding to the urban planning (Zeiss, 2007, 1). Nevertheless, the paper will seek to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by the UK Construction Industry today, whereby they will be analysed, and the relevant recommendations to deal with the issue will be proposed. Analysis of the challenges & opportunities Challenges Global Climate Change One of the challenges relates to global climate change, whereby global warming has become one of the significant environmental issues in UK, whereby there has been an increase in the global warming. Buildings in UK have been accounting for a substantial amount of energy compared to the total electricity consumption, and the entire emission of the carbon dioxide from various building (Bradford & Fraser, 2008, 156). Therefore, this has developed challenge replacing or renovating buildings in order to reduce the environmental impacts in a way that neutralizes the carbon emissions, thereby achieving respectable financial returns on investment. There are efforts for reducing consumption of fossil fuels in buildings in order to achieve the objective of neutrality, and this will be achieved through seeking new approaches in designing and renovating buildings. Inflation The other challenge relates to the pressure exerted on the construction industry by inflation, whereby pressure has been building over the emerging markets and other mature economies. There is a substantial domestic demand experienced in the construction industry, which is calling for expansionary monetary policy, and increase in cost of commodities (Deloitte, 2009, 1). This results to an inflation risk prevailing in the year, though the central bank has commenced to increase the rates in order to prevent asset bubbles. Therefore, a likelihood of remaining as a target in UK because of pressure exerted on the commodities used is in the construction industry while an increase in tax has resulted to an increase in the wages due to expectation of further increase in inflation (Langdon, 2011, 3). Nevertheless, there are policies that have been undertaken in the Back of England concerning the quantitative reduction of interest rates during the year leading to implications for inflation, which targets integrity (Jones, 2011, 1). In this case, the risk associated with inflation has been depicted three key factors such as potentiality in the rise of food inflation, persistent rise in prices of asset and a substantial increase in the global commodity prices. Shrinking workforce The construction industry in UK has faced a loss in the vital knowledge associated to the inability to replace specific skills, which have made a significant contribution to eh industry. On the other hand, the utility industry has achieved an age of utility workers since numerous of the workers who are experience are about to retire (Hughes, 2011, 1). Moreover, there is an aging workforce as a significant concern in the construction industry, and this is contributing substantially to the shrinkage of the workforce. There are expectations of an increase of average annual rate in construction industry leading to subsequent raise in rate of employment opportunities. However, the deteriorated workforce contributes to a problem related to utilities of the construction industry, whereby the utilities that are projected can lose stability (Lynagh, 2010, 1). Opportunities Globalization One of the opportunities in the construction industry has been created by globalization, whereby it fosters a flow of exports from various countries. In fact, globalization has made the firms in UK to active in their markets such as international construction market, thereby avoiding reliance on the developing counties (Kulatunga, Amaratunga & Haigh, 2009, 891). Moreover, there is an opportunity created by globalization that facilitates exportation of construction enterprises form developing countries. Information The other opportunity in the construction industry is created by information concerning planning, construction, operations and maintenance. There are other opportunities created by infrastructures such as roads, networks of infrastructure and telecommunication, water, gas and power (BERR, 2007, 10). On the other hand, advancement in technology has made a significant contribution though numerous disciplines, though which software applications are used to build and maintain a network. For instance, there are disciplines, which involve land developers, architects, specialists involved in installation of heating and ventilation systems in buildings. There are others such as plumbers, telephone companies and the departments of roads, which offer few, create opportunities for improving the construction industry. Information related to various disciplines such as architecture, civil and structural engineering has contributed to the creation of opportunities for maintain information concerning design application and data (Taylor, 2010, 885). Moreover, this has made a significant contribution to maintenance of operations, planning and responding to the urban planners seeking to access the urban terrain, which entail the interiors and exteriors of a building, roads and various utilities. Therefore, the challenge does not regard to the data since it assists people in the creation of good designs of infrastructure and buildings. Technology The other opportunities are obtained from the application of the software in fields such as architectural design, structural engineering, development of land and civil engineering related to application of the information surveying (PRWeb, 2012, 1). In fact, there are isolations of disciplines from each other and maintenance of technology in order to provide significant information for designs and engineering. Nevertheless, technology has contributed significantly to compression of the telecommunication network in the construction industry. Moreover, the owner and operators in the construction industry have raised concern about the costs incurred in the process of maintaining the facilities that are contributing to the entire cost of the facilities. On the other hand, there is a difficulty associated with the challenges of difficulty faced during integration of the data obtained through technology, for instance, in the emergence of the need for responders and access to information concerning the buildings and various cases of emergencies. In this case, there are opportunities associated with telecommunications, accessibility to roads and other utilities (Construction Skills & UKCES, 2007, 1). Therefore, in order to identify and utilize these opportunities, there is a need for substantial training and application of the multitude of designs that are offered by vendors, and they can offer assistance in dealing with emergencies. Conclusion and Recommendation In conclusion, the paper has covered issues related to challenges and opportunities in the construction industry in UK, whereby the first section of the paper identifies the issue and the second section covers an analysis of the challenges and opportunities. Nevertheless, there are recommendations that can assist in dealing with challenges and identification and utilization of opportunities in the construction industry. In this case, there should be preparation of growth by increasing the level of productivity though long-terms growth in the sector. This should be emphasised in the period when the public spending has constrains that need the industry to make improvements in relation to productivity, in order to facilitate productivity when inflation is increasing. In fact, there should be a focus on maintenance of existing skills for developing other new skills and innovation in working practice for preparation of growth in the sector. Construction industry in UK and the SMEs should develop an environment sector that is prepared to undertake the challenge of energy efficiency, whereby seeking to reduce the amount of carbon emission and create substantial opportunities for growth (BT, 2012, 1). Moreover, there should be guidance in offered by the government and investment by various employers in order to ensure that there is the acquisition of the relevant skills and knowledge for coping with completion in the growing market. On the other hand, the government is recommended to engage employer in meeting the demands for skills required in today’s industry, whereby workers in the industry at national and local levels should guarantee the industry with recruits of new workers annually. Furthermore, there should be an understanding of diversity in requirements of skills in order to develop an environment that can foster innovation and growth. There is a recommendation related to a focus on tackling the recruitment challenges in order to ensure that there are talented recruits are acquired in the industry, through companionship in apprenticeship as the vocational route. In fact, maintaining the employers and the public sector there is a need to focus on the innovativeness of the employees through an approach that motivates the graduate to seek for employment. On the other hand, there should be development of educational and training facilities, through funding and provision for new entrants with objectives of developing assets in the existing workforce. Furthermore, there is a need to seek ways of coping with competition in the construction industry though investing in skills and training of workers (Information Daily, 2011, 1). The last recommendation urges the construction industry to equip UK with trained, productive workforce as a way of facilitating growth in the sector, since it is vital for the growth of the business. Moreover, there is a need to replace the skills that are lost in the industry during the recession, whereby creating understanding of the skills available in UK, in order to determine the future need. In this way, the industry can plan effectively though an investment plans during the difficult times after understanding the essentials of the labour market. 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