Sustainable construction sector

The quality of the built environment is hugely important to the quality of life within the region, and to the economy of the East Midlands.

The construction and construction products industry consists of the following:

• Construction contracting
• The mining, quarrying and production of materials and products
• The retail and wholesale of materials and products
• Professional services (e.g. architects, surveyors etc.)
• Plant hire.

The following regional industries contribute significantly to the construction sector:

• Aggregates
• Brick and block manufacturing
• Cement production
• Pre-cast concrete engineering/component industries.

In these areas of activity, construction (contracting) and manufacturing come together very effectively and, there are many other synergies – for example Offsite Manufacturing – which are driving the construction sector to learn as much as possible from the manufacturing sector.

The region also has a share of the £6 billion annual national offsite output. This is a manufacture-led approach to the delivery of built assets, from complete buildings to component assemblies and construction elements. Wherever possible, offsite solutions are being incorporated into the construction process.

The construction industry provides significant employment both nationally (2.3 million) and regionally (163,000), and outstanding ‘added value’ to the economy – with outputs in 2006 of £113 billion nationally (8.7% of gross value added) and £9.5 billion regionally.

Construction is a huge sector, involved at all stages of the life-cycle of constructing built assets in a sustainable way, ranging from design; planning and material production to construction; facilities management; refurbishing; demolition and replacement.

For more information about the support available to the sustainable construction sector visit the Sustainable Construction iNet.