“No other industry sector has a larger environmental impact. The construction and operation of buildings accounts for half of UK carbon emissions, half of the public water supply and 92 million tonnes of waste.”
Terry Dix, Arup
The West Midlands is strong in materials, product design, engineering and R&D. The region has 15% of the UK market share in off-site manufacturing and has a concentration of major businesses.
Market leading businesses include Carillion, Arup and Morgan Sindall in general construction and civil engineering; Kingspan, Space 4 and Mtech in off-site manufacturing and Marley Eternit, Bison and Lafarge in building materials and products.
International research and testing centres for building materials include Rapra for building plastics and products and CERAM for ceramic and refractory products.
Two of the big three building materials and products distributors Jewson and Wolseley are headquartered in the region.
Achievements
• The West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE) has established six sub-regional best practice clubs with over 600 businesses collaborating on productivity improvements. Demonstration projects to date have provided 28 exemplars of best practice and are improving the productivity and performance of the West Midlands construction industry.
• Advantage Offsite has positioned the West Midlands as a leading UK region in the off-site manufacturing of buildings, a sector which is growing at over 30% per annum.
• The Sustainable Public Buildings Project is delivering £60 million of public sector buildings as exemplars of sustainability. It has provided the links for 92 regional businesses to enter the market for sustainable building technologies. The project has connected the regional supply chain (including architects and building services engineers) to the new £4 million Blackheath Library producing a state-of-the-art sustainable design.
Target Markets 2008 - 11
• Materials, products and services to reduce CO2 emissions from the built environment and to adapt buildings to climate change (higher temperatures and more frequent storms and flooding).
• Off-site manufactured buildings - promoting innovation, international best practice and inward investment.
• Supply chain development within the construction industry, actively promoting best practice and industry collaboration to increase productivity and close the regional GVA gap.