The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions has allocated £6.6M to the construction sector for research and innovation projects over the next three years.

The money, coming under the Partners in Innovation scheme, will fund over 80 projects aimed at developing ways to improve competitive performance and meet clients’ needs more effectively. The results will be translated into the Construction Best Practice Programme for application throughout the sector.

Common themes in the current round of funding include sustainable buildings, technological innovation and health & safety practices.

In the specific case of local government construction, construction minister Beverley Hughes has publicly issued the client-side with three challenges:

• First, to become leading-edge clients, the way local authorities were in the last century
  
  
• Second, to base decisions on a whole-life view of buildings, not just on lowest cost
  
  
• And finally, to work in partnership with suppliers towards shared goals.

In essence, these are the principles of the government’s best-value programme beginning to take hold at local authority level.

Elliott Chase