Laura Capper, Head of Manufacturing and Construction at NatWest, shares her thoughts on future trends and expectations for UK construction in 2024
Laura Capper was appointed as Head of Manufacturing & Construction for NatWest in August 2022. Having worked with SMEs and corporations in the asset finance and banking industry for 15 years, her key responsibilities include building strong relationships with industry stakeholders and industry bodies and supporting organizations. By understanding the challenges faced by manufacturing and construction companies, her focus is centered on developing a unique proposition of financial and non-financial solutions that address these, as well as creating opportunities for businesses to achieve their goals and growth ambitions.
Laura also takes a key role in developing NatWest’s sustainability strategy, which looks at supporting businesses to transition to net zero and take advantage of the many opportunities that the decarbonization of the economy will deliver.
NatWest Group is a relationship bank for a digital world. Having supported the UK’s finances for hundreds of years, Natwest Group champions potential, breaking down barriers and building financial confidence so the 19 million people, families, and businesses it serves in communities throughout the UK and Ireland can rebuild and thrive.
Capper shares her thoughts on future trends and expectations for UK construction in 2024, covering sustainability, safety, technology, collaboration, skills, and energy.
Sustainability at the heart of construction
“Sustainable and eco-friendly building practices, increased use of technology like Building Information Modelling (BIM), and a focus on modular construction for efficiency are likely to be prominent. With the built environment accounting for 40% of carbon emissions in the UK and the construction sector accounting for up to 11% of global emissions, it’s more important than ever for the construction industry to adopt more environmentally friendly solutions. ‘Sustainable’ building entails designing and constructing eco-friendly buildings with sustainable materials and methods, reducing emissions during construction, and ensuring long-term energy efficiency. The sector has already seen a great number of examples where these practices are working, so scaling this up will make it more accessible to all businesses across the construction supply chain, which will ultimately support a lower cost base.
“A continued emphasis on safety within the built environment. The Building Safety Act has set clear standards across the industry to allow all to have guardrails to work to ensure the safety of higher -risk buildings, both in construction and in occupation. Having a more effective regulatory framework provides consistency of practices within the sector and many operators within the built environment will continue to ensure this remains a key priority throughout the design and build of properties.”
Continued digitization and technology development
“The integration of digitization and technology into the sector will continue to be a key feature next year. Construction business leaders recognize greater use of technology can drive transformative change within the industry, and those contractors that have embraced digital transformation found it successful, investing in digital training, and are motivated by the business case to do so. Digitization isn’t simply about overcoming current challenges but becoming more resilient and more productive in the years ahead. Embracing technology’s potential for better visibility, efficiency, and collaboration means business leaders can deliver better, faster, greener solutions for their clients.
“Improved collaboration is another key construction industry trend that is vital to ensure the sector remains resilient and able to navigate future challenges. Greater collaboration and transparency through the supply chain will be key to minimizing risks, delays, and creeping costs in an external environment which continues to be volatile.”
“The skills shortages in the built environment have been widely acknowledged for many years and will continue to place pressure on the industry in 2024. The skills gap includes a lack of entrants joining the industry, as well as specific and new, green skills being needed to be developed by those who already have a role in construction. The drive towards decarbonization will also provide huge opportunities for the sector in terms of job creation. Ashden estimates that over 400,000 builders and skilled heating engineers are needed for the industry to tackle the challenge of retrofitting 29 million homes in the UK. Still, just 200,000 people are currently working on maintaining and upgrading existing homes. In addition to this, the Construction Industry Training Board identified that the existing industry workforce needs to be more than doubled, with the training of around 500,000 new professionals and tradespeople across the sector as a whole.
“Retrofit will continue to provide a scalable opportunity for those operating across the built environment. With energy security being a key need for individuals to have cosier homes, in addition to regulatory requirements starting to drive the required change, the need to scale the retrofit industry is vital, but the economic opportunity is vast also. Retrofitting residential properties will help to generate a PS65bn revenue opportunity for SMEs before 2030 – and an additional PS30bn of revenue for installing residential heat pumps, and PS25bn for non-residential heat pumps.”