The Chairman of construction giant Laing O’Rouke has argued that productivity in the construction industry is “woeful”.


Ray O’Rouke said at the HSBC sponsored event in Australia last week that both Australia and the UK’s construction industry ha poor productivity with limited progress in attracting new “bright people” into the industry.


O’Rouke commented that getting the best people into construction was difficult due to the number of other opportunities they had in other industries in the UK whilst pointing out in Australia part of the issues was the distance of construction projects from the major population centres.


He said: “Productivity is woefully low in both regions… How you can get improved productivity is by transitioning from having trades to technicians. I want to see people working with a lab coats [on site] assembling stuff that has been manufactured to a very high standard.”


O’Rouke has invested in offsite manufacturing facilities, making offsite manufacturing a central characteristic of the Laing O’Rouke operation, however the skills shortage in the UK is still has the potential to impact the business.