{"id":60661,"date":"2026-04-08T10:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accuracy.com\/?p=60661"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:18:56","slug":"whats-wrong-with-the-construction-industry-and-how-can-we-make-it-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accuracy.com\/fr\/whats-wrong-with-the-construction-industry-and-how-can-we-make-it-better\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s wrong with the construction industry and how can we make it better?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In 2026, it is obvious that the world is changing at extraordinary speed. Pandemics, wars, artificial intelligence and automation<\/strong> are reshaping economies and societies. Our children will likely live in surroundings very different from ours. One would expect the construction industry, which builds the physical backbone of that world, to be evolving just as rapidly.<\/p>

Yet when we look at how projects are still procured, how often they end in disputes, and how similar today\u2019s case law is to that of decades ago, the conclusion is that our industry is lagging behind.<\/b>Risk is still pushed down the supply chain, price competition still dominates and fragmentation is still present.
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So why is it that we do not innovate and change our industry? If we want different results, we must rethink the architecture of delivery itself:<\/strong> starting with a clear client strategy, followed by procurement processes that reward value rather than price, contracts that integrate rather than fragment, and management practices that incentivise collaborative behaviour across the project ecosystem, recognising that only integrated decision making can deliver both productivity gains and meaningful carbon reduction.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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So, what is wrong with the construction industry?<\/h4>

Recent industry analyses suggest that the construction sector\u2019s worrying productivity stagnation, documented for more than a decade, is likely to continue unless the industry fundamentally rethinks how it operates. This stagnation is not accidental. It reflects deep structural features of the industry, including fragmentation and adversarial approaches to contracts and projects, but also the limited transfer of lessons learnt from one project to another. <\/strong>Research outputs by King\u2019s College London<\/strong> show that clients, designers, contractors and subcontractors operate in silos, often meeting only once the project has already been shaped by price competition rather than strategy.\u00b9 Early collaboration, when decisions about risk allocation, sequencing and innovation matter most is limited.<\/p>

Can collaboration save the industry?<\/b><\/p>

If fragmentation, lowest-price competition and defensive risk transfer are structural features of the current system<\/strong>, then the question naturally arises: can collaboration offer more than rhetoric \u2014 can it provide a different institutional architecture for delivery? It is precisely in response to these structural weaknesses that the UK began to rethink procurement. <\/strong>It all started with reports commissioned and published as early as the 1990s<\/strong> with the Latham and Egan reports being the best known but it has become increasingly evident today, after the publication of the Construction Playbook.\u00b2<\/strong> The Playbook mandates moving away from adversarial tendering models, promoting long-term, outcome-focused relationships that align commercial interests and foster innovation. It contains 14 recommendations<\/strong> including the promotion of long-term partnerships and collaborative models and is mandatory on a comply or explain<\/strong> basis. A similar instrument exists for the private sector, called Trust and productivity: The private sector construction playbook and published in November 2022. Complementing the Playbook, the 2021 Constructing the Gold Standard Frameworks Report, commissioned by the UK Cabinet Office and drafted by Professor David Mosey reinforces the principle that long-term relationships between clients and suppliers are essential for achieving better value and sustainability in construction outcomes.<\/p>

Together, these policy instruments indicate that the UK government has gradually shifted<\/strong> from a paradigm whereby value for money in the construction industry is delivered through competitive tension to a paradigm of collaboration and long-term partnerships.<\/p>

How do collaborative contracts work?<\/b><\/p>

It is usually acknowledged that contracts can create and sustain a collaborative ethos in a construction project and that is exactly why collaborative construction contracts have become increasingly in the spotlight.<\/p>

There is no universally accepted definition of partnering, alliance or collaborative contracts, but commentators often refer to the features identified by Latham. He recommended that a collaborative contract should at least include the following features:<\/strong><\/p>