The construction sector is not just men and muddy boots

At UKREiiF this week, the Save Construction Initiative will kick off its Not Just Men & Muddy Boots campaign with the release of a video featuring Andy Burnham, Steve Rotheram and TikTok influencer Jacob Pasquill.

Pasquill’s message is “Be part of something great” and, as chief executive of the Save Construction Initiative, which officially launched this January, I truly believe that people who join the industry will be part of something great.

In January, we registered as a not-for-profit organisation after more than three years operating as an informal movement. As one of three directors on the board, alongside Tim Whitehill and Sandra Robinson, I can attest to the significant progress the voluntary taskforce we set up with the support of a committee of industry professionals has made in our mission to improve the stability of the UK construction sector. However, there is a long way to go.

We set up the Save Construction Initiative in 2019 after witnessing the exceptionally high numbers of insolvencies in the construction sector. The situation was nothing less than catastrophic in the northwest. The Carillion saga was still a hot topic and other local businesses that had been trading for 80 to 120 years were suffering financial hardship despite having promising order books. When the 11^th contractor entered administration, taking much of the supply chain with it, and with rumblings of other reputable companies teetering on the edge of collapse, I knew action needed to be taken. I reached out to my network and a committee of likeminded people was assembled including representation from research, procurement, public sector and law.

Our goal was to identify the root cause of the problem that was stealing the livelihoods, careers and futures of people working in construction. Within weeks, we realised the magnitude of the task at hand. It wasn’t just a northwest that was suffering; this was a national problem. We’d uncovered the devastating truth that the sector was consistently ranked first for insolvency with the Office of National Statistics, there was a huge skills shortage and, even more alarmingly, construction had the highest rates of suicide of any industry.

We immediately forged alliances with each of the chairs from the professional bodies such as IED MSA, RICS, CIOB, CIBSE and NFB to strengthen our cause. We also secured meetings with GMCA’s policy writers and head of housing. Then Covid struck and we had to abandon our plans.

Although construction was one of the first sectors to get back up and running, it has become apparent since the pandemic that a lot of the problems facing the sector are, if anything, now bigger. Through research conducted with local authorities, framework leaders and businesses representing every discipline, backed by Tom Stannard Salford Councils CEO and Paul Dennett GMCA Deputy Mayor and Mayor of Salford, we established that insolvency, procurement, skills, and mental health and suicide were still serious issues for the construction industry.

In just five short months since our official launch this January, we have agreed a collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University where Tim Whitehill will take up the position of Visiting Research Fellow at the Liverpool Business School. In line with our mission, the collaboration aims to build links between SCI, industry, and academia, to drive research and knowledge into our sector. This will be in the specific areas of organisational resilience, leadership and management development.

Proving there’s a huge willingness to be accountable and amalgamate for the greater good, the industry has contributed and participated in our campaign to address the skills shortage. With the launch of our Not Just Men & Muddy Boots campaign at UKREiiF, I hope to see the UK construction sector play its part in dispelling the myth that the sector is only for men and about wet trades by displaying our posters on hoardings and billboards and uploading our short videos on Tik Tok. If we want to target the young people, we need to do so via social media. To quote Helen Keller: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

The camaraderie I have witnessed so far has been outstanding. Everyone is collaborating in the true sense of the word and uniting to address the challenges together. I have never been prouder than I am right now to be working in construction. Team SCI and I are excited to see where this journey leads. I am sure only good things will come from our combined efforts.

Zoe Brooke is CEO and founder of The Save Construction Initiative