Renukappa, S and Akintoye, A (2011) Potential opportunities for the UK construction industry in the water sector. In: Egbu, C and Lou, E C W (eds.) Proceedings of 27th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2011, Bristol, UK.
Abstract
Many construction industry leaders agree that falling workload, government spending cuts, sustainability issues, increasing energy and resources costs, and decreased capital availability, pose profound strategic challenges for the construction industry in the UK and beyond. However, desperate need for infrastructure development has increased demand for the UK construction industry. The UK water-related infrastructure sector is projected to attract investment worth £4.5bn per annum over the next ten years. Therefore, this sector will become vital to the construction industry over the next decade or so. It is, therefore important to explore the key opportunities available for the UK construction industry in the water-related infrastructure development. This paper is based on review and synthesis of literature, presents the outlook of the UK water industry, key characteristics of the water-related infrastructure, opportunities for the construction industry in the water-related infrastructure and water-related infrastructure procurement methods. It is concluded that it is inevitable that the UK construction industry will see reduced workload arising from the recession and capital spending cuts. However, the need to spend on infrastructure creates opportunities for the industry. The construction industry needs to step forward and develop solutions with the public sector and create new physical infrastructure procurement models that will underpin mutual goals.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | infrastructure; investment; procurement; public-private partnership; water sector |
| Index terms: | infrastructure sector, construction industry, physical infrastructure, recession, procurement method, workload, public sector, infrastructure development, partnership |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, economic analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, industry analysis, administrative law, partnership management, infrastructure engineering, management |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, Procurement, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Legal Issues, Human Resources |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here