Poor productivity and quality of work has forced house building firm Bovis Homes to replace a substantial number of contractors across its sites…
Substandard performance of trade contractors has pushed Bovis Homes to re-evaluate its sites. The firm said replacing poorly performing contractors had pushed building costs up by some eight per cent in the last year.
Chief executive David Ritchie said the firm was working closely with selected groundwork contractors to ensure fast starts on sites in a bid to speed up production rates. This is a similar method used by the firm with material suppliers to minimise delivery time and cost risks.
Ritchie said: “We have seen double-digit labour inflation in certain occasions, impacting both our own construction staff as well as labour from our key trades.
“We have incurred some additional costs where we’ve replaced subcontractors on sites either to ensure we hit the production rates that we’re required or to hit the quality that we’re required on site.”
A skills shortage in the sector has put immense pressure on construction projects. Richie said going forward contractors would undergo more vigorous checks, ensuring they have enough labour to deliver production targets.
“In the current housing market, our plan envisages the business delivering sustainable growth over the next few years to achieve annual volumes of between 5,000 and 6,000 new homes,” Richie said.
“We have invested well during 2015 in new consented land and achieved a strong level of conversion from our strategic land bank.”