Hammering for British builders

Hammering for British builders

British builders are among the least efficient in the western world, according to a researcher who spent two years on building sites logging their performance.

The infamous tea-break is partly to blame, along with late starts, early finishes and incompetent management. Nearly a fifth of working time was wasted through workers swinging the lead, but a further 12 per cent of time was unproductive because of managerial cock-ups. Workers in Sweden, Germany and the US were far more efficient, wasting less than than 3 per cent of their working week through late arrivals and early finishing. Amazingly most British building projects are completed on time, to budget, but the Building Services Research and Information Association believes that inefficiency was allowed for in estimates. Barrie Clement