The Construction Playbook Podcast

We all know projects in construction can run over time and over budget. But is The Construction Playbook right in saying that early engagement and collaboration is key to tackling this by developing clear targets in a project before the spade is even in the ground, and if so, are the government themselves taking this approach?

Simon Toplass and Adam Calvin join Gerard Toplass to explore if early engagement and collaboration can prevent issues such as clients changing their needs or wants during the project or contractors over promising.

There remains a health and wellbeing crisis in construction in the UK, but how can we address it?

The Construction Playbook asks for better hours, more local work, MMC and more. All taking people off-site and into a more forgiving environment. This podcast explores the possibilities and highlights methods in which the industry can adapt and practice.

The Social Value Act 2012 came into being to cover Public Sector works contracts, but with The Construction Playbook, and more recently the Government ‘push’, SV is now taking centre stage as the foundation for rebuilding the economy post pandemic, and as a catalyst for Net Zero, Carbon reduction.

We’re joined by two social value leads who aim to demonstrate that social value is a journey and not a destination, and the differences between social value in the public and private sector.

We need to close skills gap as well as allowing more time for soft skills development and career progression. This podcast discusses if there is a need for a greater amount of job-specific training and if the training that is being delivered is up to date.

The Value Toolkit hopes to kickstart a drive to acknowledgement and recognition of the value that public spending on infrastructure is and what the built environment can deliver.

Connor McCarthy and Ellie Jenkins joins Gerard Toplass to look at what the costs are involved with the Value Toolkit and how it enables the industry to act on The Construction Playbook.

Many believe that construction is lagging most other industries in terms of innovation and is now at the forefront of many of the significant issues that this country and the world faces, including net zero carbon and a distinct labour shortage.

This podcast discusses how innovation can help with many aspects of using technology to become more data led and aligned to The Construction Playbook.

The Construction Playbook tells us we must embrace good Contract Management and Supply Chain management to ensure good outcomes, in this podcast we discuss what this means and how it should be done.  

Contract disputes can result from poor admin, poor management andpoorly trained individuals in charge of projects and contracts, Gerard, Stuart and Tom look into how we should address this.

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can actually be cheaper than a traditional build. Alongside a plethora of other benefits, this podcast discusses what the Construction Playbook has done to try and ensure that MMC’s are used.

MMC is not an end and contracting authorities should consider whether, how and to what extent the use of MMC can drive wider value and achieve the project or programme outcomes.

Steve Wightman and Keith Hayes join host Gerard Toplass to discuss.