黑洞社区

The government will cut 20% from the cost of construction projects by standardising buildings, and give the industry greater foresight of public work.

In its 鈥楶lan for Growth鈥�, released alongside the Budget on Wednesday, it said it would introduce 鈥渘ew models of procurement鈥� and cut out bespoke design in the public sector.

The Coalition has been putting pressure on suppliers to reduce costs since it won power, and chief construction adviser Paul Morrell has told the government the industry can cut prices by up to 30% if it works in a more integrated way.

Yet this is the first time the government has put a figure on how much it wants construction to cut costs by, and explicitly linked savings to standardisation.

Responding to contractors鈥� demands for greater clarity over capital spending, it also said it would publish the public sector pipeline from autumn 2011.

鈥淸We will] enable building contractors to respond more effectively to emerging market opportunities by publishing quarterly from autumn 2011, a rolling two year forward programme of infrastructure and construction projects where public funding has been agreed,鈥� the plan said.

Stephen Ratcliffe, director of the UK contractors鈥� group, said that the pipeline announcement would give the industry more certainty and stability.

鈥淲e鈥檙e quite pleased with that, it鈥檚 good news. It was our number one priority,鈥� he said.