In today’s news, we will look into the businesses in the United Kingdom are hesitant to implement artificial intelligence, while the construction industry is falling behind. In the meantime, ISG suppliers are going to receive seven million pounds as building resumes at the previous location. In addition, how the new Skills England initiative proposed by Labour may help save the building industry and resolve the housing problem.
UK Construction Firms Behind in AI Use
Original Source: UK businesses slow to adopt AI as construction industry lags behind
How UK construction companies are adopting AI
Despite a small uptick of 5% from September of last year, just 21% of UK businesses have implemented AI systems, according to the latest numbers from the ONS Business Insights survey.
Although there has been an improvement in the overall usage of AI, 79% of organisations still do not use AI in any way.
Only 12% of construction companies are utilising AI, according to the survey, which is a very low acceptance rate.
The results show that many industries are sluggish to use AI, which is one of the problems that has persisted throughout the years.
Motives for implementing AI in corporate settings
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that forty percent of UK businesses using AI are aiming to improve efficiency.
At the same time, 24 percent have used AI to personalise offerings to customers in order to boost satisfaction.
Even though many businesses are starting to see the financial benefits of AI, construction is one of the worst offenders when it comes to adoption.
“Recent advancements in AI create the opportunity to revolutionise how the industry approaches the process of building maintenance,” said Mike Talbot, chief technology officer at SFG20, when asked about the potential influence of AI on the building maintenance business.
“The most difficult thing for building maintenance managers is to figure out what needs doing to each building asset in order to keep people safe, cut costs, and remain in compliance with regulations.”
Integrating AI into building upkeep
Everyone from building owners and managers to engineers and construction workers has benefited from the increasing use of AI in building maintenance.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to speed up the scheduling and execution of maintenance operations, which would aid in lowering costs and ensuring compliance.
Talbot detailed how AI streamlines the process by evaluating assets and coordinating them with SFG20 schedules, automating a significant portion of the risk management and compliance procedures.
Talbot said that AI can automate and speed up a lot of building maintenance tasks: “AI can now shoulder the load of these tasks and reduce the time taken from months to hours by understanding both the asset and the SFG20 schedules that apply – automatically creating a link in many cases and providing the key questions to ask where not enough information exists.”
Reminder: SFG20 Virtual Summit is Coming Up Soon!
On Wednesday, 20th November, at the SFG20 Virtual Summit 2024, Mike Talbot will talk about the role of AI in building maintenance.
With the help of a virtual panel of experts, Talbot will go over some real-world applications of AI, some best practices, and the effects of AI from an engineering standpoint.
Those interested in attending the virtual event can do so by registering through the SFG20 summit website.
Despite growing interest, few UK businesses have adopted AI: Summary
According to the ONS Business Insights report, the percentage of UK businesses using AI has climbed 5% from last year, but it is still relatively low at 21%.
Particularly low-adoption is seen in the construction business, where only 12% use AI.
According to ONS, the majority of companies that use AI do so to enhance operations or provide more personalised services.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to simplify compliance and scheduling processes, according to Mike Talbot, CTO at SFG20, who discussed its use in building maintenance.
These are some of the subjects that Talbot will cover in the forthcoming SFG20 Virtual Summit 2024.
ISG Suppliers Earn £7m as Previous Site Building Begins
Original Source: ISG suppliers to get £7m as construction resumes at former site
In the event of ISG’s failure, the supply chain involved in “one of the largest projects” it has in the UK will get over £7 million.
After ISG went into administration, Borley Engineering Services Ltd (BESL), a construction company located in Wales, was named interim principal contractor for the £108 million Fairwater Community Campus project by Cardiff Council.
More than £7 million will be paid to current subcontractors and suppliers for on-site work that has already been done by the local council.
BESL will resume site operations “as quickly as possible” as they launch a tender process to choose a new principle contractor to carry out the project.
Word on the street is that the council is pushing for a change in the project’s principal contractor by April of next year.
According to Cardiff Council, this agreement has not been repeated elsewhere, and it is also known that Fairwater was one of the largest projects that ISG had on site in the UK.
“The council will award BESL on an emergency basis as part of the arrangements with ISG’s administrator. This will preserve jobs and safeguard the works that have been completed thus far by paying more than £7 million to the current subcontractors and suppliers for the works that have already been done,” the council announced this morning in a statement.
Plus, “many of the subcontractors are located within twenty miles of the Fairwater Community Campus site, and the local authority has actively engaged with them throughout the process.”
This is the biggest educational initiative in Cardiff to be supported by the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme, and it has the backing of both the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council.
On a single Fairwater site, the plan calls for the new Cantonian High School, Riverbank School, and Woodlands High School.
“We have put an arrangement in place that saves the supply chain and are fully committed to ensuring the progress of the Fairwater Community Campus project,” stated a representative from Cardiff Council.
We will ensure that workers are paid for their work, minimise delays, keep costs down, safeguard the supply chain, and get workers back on site as soon as possible by selecting BESL as the interim emergency principal contractor. This will protect the public investment that has already been made in one of the largest education projects in the UK, as well as keep jobs secure.
For the sake of the three schools’ students and the community at large, who will be using the campus’s new amenities both now and in the future, we are committed to seeing this project through to its conclusion.
Labour’s New Skills England Can Turn Around the Housing Crisis and Construction Economy
Original Source: How Labour’s new Skills England can save the construction industry and fix the housing crisis
Addressing the housing issue would be the most impactful way for the new skills body of the Labour Party to achieve its goals of transforming chances and driving growth.
Planned and unplanned obstacles abound for the Labour Party’s 1.5 million house construction goals while in office. It is much more unclear, however, who will really construct the properties.
With 531,200 open positions expected to be filled between 2017 and 2022, skill shortages are pervasive in the United Kingdom. A third of the available jobs in the United Kingdom are due to a lack of qualified candidates.
The construction industry has felt this quite strongly. According to a research by Big Issue earlier this year, 300,000 people have left the construction industry in the past five years.
There is now an unfilled void as a result of that. In addition to an ageing workforce, research from the Resolution Foundation shows that the construction industry is contracting in terms of overall employment. An increasing proportion of workers, roughly one-third in 2015 compared to one-quarter in 2005, are 50 and older.
Through Skills England, the government is striving to address talent shortages.
Businesses, training providers, and unions have come together to form a new national body with the goal of increasing apprenticeship and training possibilities and bringing about the economic growth that the Labour Party had promised in its manifesto.
The Apprenticeship Levy, which has been criticised for being overly strict in its assistance to individuals getting a career footing, will undoubtedly come to an end, with more specifics to be announced in the coming months.
In its place, the government is suggesting a malleable “Growth and Skills Levy” to open up additional doors for businesses and individuals seeking employment.
Lizzie Crowley, an adviser for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), stated: “Ensuring that we have the right skills, in the right place, at the right time is essential to unlocking UK-wide productivity and growth” in response to Skills England’s inclusion in July’s King Speech.
“The fragmented and complex skills landscape in the UK needs to be connected and simplified immediately.”
“Encouraging employers to invest more in training that will address workforce skills gaps” should be the goal of the new growth and skills levy, per her.
According to Sara Roberts, senior operating officer at Kingdom Academy, the levy has the potential to address talent shortages within housing associations and initiate a process of professionalisation within the industry.
For the past fifteen years, the training institution has provided housing management certifications; for the past five years, it has also served as a study facility supported by the Chartered Institute of Housing.
It’s one of six schools that provide housing-related certifications at the intermediate and advanced levels.
Roberts stated that the key to delivering more residences and the economic growth that Labour and the country desire is to address deficiencies in the administrative side of home construction.
“Skills England has the potential to significantly impact the housing sector,” Roberts stated in an interview with Big Issue.
The allocation of funds is a matter for housing associations to decide. Is the money going towards training people to be qualified, or is it going towards something else entirely?
It would be great for business if the government could set aside a portion of its fee to fund officially recognised credentials.
Even though most of us have our own place to call home, it’s not always a picnic to work in the housing sector, which has been in the headlines for not producing enough homes or helping tenants with maintenance.
Roberts further by saying that providing additional training through Skills England can shift people’s views and show them the way forward in the industry.
She emphasised the importance of a well-structured management system that can effectively communicate with tenants, confirm their rights, and facilitate professionalisation in order to achieve the desired robust growth in house construction and housing association activity.
The first is that not enough individuals are getting the training they need to work in today’s landscape; the second is similar to the construction industry in that more people need to find work in the housing market. The housing industry needs more enthusiastic job candidates.
According to Roberts, “the quickest way for the country to grow” is to provide individuals with skills and training. It takes time to construct roads, neighbourhoods, and everything else, but providing individuals with training and skills gives them a chance to improve themselves.
Summary of today’s construction news
Overall, we discussed the most recent data from the ONS Business Insights survey shows that just 21% of UK businesses have deployed AI systems, which is a little increase of 5% from September of last year. The overall usage of AI has improved, yet 79% of businesses still don’t employ AI at all. Very few construction organisations are using AI; the survey found that only 12% are doing so. As the findings reveal, a long-standing issue is the reluctance of many companies to implement AI. Meanwhile, more than £7 million will go to the supply chain that is involved in “one of the largest projects” that ISG has in the UK in the case that it fails.
Borley Engineering Services Ltd (BESL), a Welsh construction business, was appointed interim principal contractor for the £108 million Fairwater Community Campus project by Cardiff Council following ISG’s administration. In addition, the new Labour Party skills body would be most effective in achieving its goals of changing opportunities and boosting growth if it prioritised fixing the housing crisis. The Labour Party’s plans to build 1.5 million homes while in office are beset with both anticipated and unexpected challenges. But who exactly will build the houses is far more murky.
