Foreword
The eighth Voices in Construction Insight Panel, held on 28th November 2024, took the form of a look forward to the themes, challenges, and opportunities that will loom large in the construction sector in 2025 – and how businesses in this space must confront them.
Our panellists’ opinions and insights were knowledgeable, informative, topical, and sometimes cautionary, but what emerged from the debate overall was that there is much to embrace, as well as
many issues to mitigate, as the sector moves forward into the second half of the decade.
As always, our sincere thanks go to the specialists concerned, who on this occasion included:
- David Aitchison – BCC Consultancy (build-Insight.co.uk)
- India Brenchley – Hatfield Interiors (hatfieldinteriors.com)
- Lawrence Brenchley – Hatfield Interiors (hatfieldinteriors.com)
- Joanne Broadley – Modulyss (modulyss.com)
- Michael Chilaka – Cooperman & Goldberg (coopermanandgoldberg.com)
- Alex Lyons – London Belgravia Group (lbb.london)
- Sarah Mason – Kier Construction (kier.co.uk)
- Nick Reilly – Sustainable X (sustainablex.co.uk)
- Alan Unwin – Cetetherm (cetetherm.com)
The panel was hosted and led by Miriam Drahmane, CEO of BCM Agency (bcmagency.co.uk), and moderated by Sara Stephen (Client Relationship & Insight).
The discussion quickly gained momentum, with the panellists enthusiastically building on each other’s insights through compelling examples and thoughtful explanations. While the richness of the conversation extended far beyond the scope of this document, we aim to provide a snapshot of the lively engagement and the candid reflections shared.
Enjoy your read.
Introduction
The construction industry in 2025: what’s on the cards?
“By 2025, the industry will likely face a significant increase in demand, especially as urbanisation continues to rise and new housing developments, infrastructure projects, and
commercial buildings take shape.” – UK Construction Online
Looking at the above, one could be forgiven for thinking that the immense challenges the construction sector has faced over the past few years have finally been laid to rest.
And it’s true that the deathly hiatus of Covid, international supply chain woes, and spiralling inflation and costs are, to a greater or lesser degree, behind us.
But simple stories of rising demand often hide more complex stories of changing expectations, evolving regulations, incipient new practices and approaches, and even factors outside anybody’s immediate control like environmental challenges.
Construction in 2025 may, therefore, look superficially like a return to earlier heydays, but the likelihood is that it will depend on many things being done differently, and some things being done that were previously not done at all.
These undercurrents are all around us. The Building Research Establishment (BRE), for example, the world-leading building science body, has recently publicly exhorted the construction industry to innovate on sustainability in the face of climate change.
Building control and building regulations have undergone (and continue to undergo) wholesale transformation to address issues of quality, environmental responsibility, and fire safety, and the definition of who can and can’t inspect and sign off buildings now looks very different to what it did a mere couple of years ago.
And media commentary telling us that UK construction is at a crossroads when it comes to embracing digitalisation for further growth makes it very clear that predictions come with preconditions. But is the industry ready to fulfil them?
In this Voices in Construction Insight Panel, our experts had their say on the matter.
The themes that will dominate construction in 2025: Technology, AI, data
One very welcome word that surfaced early on in the discussion, and tied in neatly with the topic of technology, was ‘optimism’, as Cetetherm’s Alan Unwin described how the coming year is likely to see increasing engagement with digitalisation in his company’s core market of district heating systems.
Digitalisation gives greater and smarter control, remotely, over how energy companies use the heat generated by district heating networks, and this enables them to optimise consumption, reduce waste, and lower both carbon and the cost to end-users.
And on the point of technology, Alan’s was no lone voice. Both Sarah Mason of industry giant Kier Construction, and Michael Chilaka, of construction project specialist Cooperman & Goldberg, saw great potential for technology in construction in 2025 – in particular in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).
“AI will transform this space, thanks particularly to its ability to make construction’s back-office processes more efficient.”
Michael Chilaka, Cooperman & Goldberg
“AI is, and will continue to be, huge in terms of construction programming,” Sarah said. “It’s being utilised more and more in anticipating potential delays on site, and giving early warnings.”
Michael’s view was that “AI will transform this space quite significantly in 2025 and beyond,” thanks particularly to its ability to make construction’s back-office processes more efficient.
But he also sees an extended role for AI in the near future in powering robotics, which could help make many of the heavier jobs on site less risky, and using cameras to identify safety or quality issues – a worker not wearing the correct protective gear, for instance, or a technical procedure not being followed properly.
“Camera-driven AI will become more and more useful in managing risk by checking the right procedures have been followed, or that the right materials have been used.”
Alex Lyons, London Belgravia Group
The risk management angle resonated with insurer Alex Lyons, of London Belgravia, too. “Whilst the human element isn’t going to be completely removed”, he said, “I agree with Michael that camera-driven AI, which is watching what the human is seeing, will become more and more useful in managing risk by checking that the right procedures have been followed, or that the right materials have been used, for example.”
But the notion of connectivity, too, brought up originally by Alan in his comments about digitalisation, is something Alex sees as “a really big deal” for construction in 2025.
“We need to build more resilience into buildings and into infrastructure assets,” he remarked. “Equipping them with sensors and monitors will be key to achieving this, and getting us away from situations where a tower block has had a leak from the 40th floor for three years but nobody has noticed and the damage is already done.”
But both Nick Reilly, of Sustainable X and Sarah Mason cautioned that the rise in technology use in the construction space in 2025 would also likely lead to greater issues with data availability, compatibility, and integration.
Sarah commented that construction data is already “consistently inconsistent”, and Nick explained that he is now seeing contractors “struggling with data management, data structures, and data standardisation.”
“It’s putting pressure on their budgets, because there are so many different data sources they have to plug into for different clients and different projects – it’s exploding!”
A changing regulatory landscape – for the better?
For David Aitchison, of building control consultancy BCC, there are likely to be some major changes on the horizon going into 2025. These include the Government’s recommendations, due on 4th March 2025, following the Grenfell enquiry, and although some of these will be “years in the making”, David also believes some of the smaller changes may be implemented straightaway.
David also foresees a much greater degree of formality, centralisation, and competence enforcement in the building control and safety disciplines. “There’ll potentially be some more protected professions created around fire engineering,” he said, “and there could be a new central Government department created for dealing specifically with fire safety.”
“Building control may also find itself more centralised in Government, and competence will also continue to be one the main themes in the industry next year, with forthcoming changes to the Building Safety Act and the need to proactively prove competence to the Building Safety Regulator.”
“There could be a new central Government department created for dealing specifically with fire safety.” David Aitchison, BCC Consultancy
Evolving demand for materials
As for the changing use of building materials in 2025, India Brenchley of Hatfield Interiors reminded us that some sectors have been ahead of others for many years in this respect, but she also highlighted how Government policy can very quickly increase demand for these products, potentially foreshadowing supply chain difficulties in 2025.
“In the furniture, fixtures, and equipment sector, specialist fire-retardant materials, for example, have long been a requirement in education and healthcare buildings,” she explains.
“But what we’re finding now is that the Government’s new funding for special education needs and disabilities (SEND) fit-outs in schools – breakout areas and suchlike – means that demand for these kinds of materials is higher than ever before, and it’s already creating capacity issues.”
For Joanne Broadley, of Belgian flooring manufacturer Modulyss, innovation in 2025 will principally be about “the use of bio-based materials, reducing the use of raw materials, and creating lighter-weight products that both contain less embodied carbon and cause less CO2 to be emitted during transportation.”
“The Government’s new funding for SEND fit-outs in schools, means that demand for these kinds of materials is higher than ever before, and it’s already creating capacity issues.” India Brenchley, Hatfield Interiors
Sustainability: increasingly important for pocket and planet
Joanne’s comments on materials led the panel seamlessly into the next theme of the discussion – sustainability – and Joanne’s contribution continued with the mention of one particularly critical factor.
“It’s all about the circular economy,” she said, “making sure there’s more recyclable content in our products, and ensuring they’re recyclable at end of life as well.”
Nick Reilly immediately picked up on this point. “Circularity will become more and more important, so we’re seeing trends in that direction.”
“But we’re also seeing, and will continue to see into 2025, increased demand from clients to actually evidence sustainability, including product lifecycle carbon data and disposability data – the latter of which is largely missing right now.”
Alan Unwin also sees the ability to actually evidence sustainability as a key requirement in 2025. “We’ve focused on the ISO route to gain certifications that evidence embedded carbon and recyclability,” he explains, “and our new factory in Sweden is a totally solar-powered and sustainable building.”
“It’s all about the circular economy, making sure there’s more recyclable content in our products, and ensuring they’re recyclable at end of life as well.” Joanne Broadley, Modulyss
But the economic benefits of sustainability will also start to move to the fore in 2025, according to both Alan and Hatfield Interiors’ Lawrence Brenchley.
“I am seeing more focus on whole life cost,” said Lawrence. “We are addressing this by specifying higher-durability products that last longer. Design teams are starting to take this on board in their calculations, so that value for money is prioritised, rather than the cheapest price.”
Alan, for his part, remarks that “I’ve seen more requests over the past year for whole life costs than ever before!”
Sarah Mason, though, emphasised that immediate costs are still likely to be a barrier to the adoption of sustainable materials, approaches, and practices in 2025. “While sustainability is key for many clients,” she conceded, “this is not always demonstrated by some private developers who look for fast monetary gain, making it difficult to prioritise quality and sustainability over cost.”
“While sustainability is key for many clients, this is not always demonstrated by some private developers who look for fast monetary gain, making it difficult to prioritise quality and sustainability over cost.” Sarah Mason, Kier Construction
Building differently: what will change, and why?
Moving on to other likely changes of practice in the construction industry in 2025, a number of additional themes surfaced in the discussion, including modular buildings, climate change, and water supply.
Alex Lyons took the pragmatic view that the only realistic way the construction industry will be able to meet the demand for housing and hit sustainability targets at the same time is likely to be through the use of modular building methods, but he also pointed out some serious concerns.
Systemic defects, for example, which can be a particular weakness of modular approaches, because many thousands of the same component can be manufactured with the same defect, presents a real challenge for insurers.
This becomes even more of a worry, Alex said, when changing climate conditions are taken into account.
“We need to bear in mind,” he pointed out, “that changing weather conditions will mean we have to expect more from all our buildings, modular and otherwise, in terms of their ability to stand up to greater heat, higher water tables, flooding, and so on.”
