The UK construction industry will receive a £150m injection of capital over the next five years to help reduce construction times, improve quality and make buildings more energy efficient.
A total of £60m is being invested through the Technology Strategy Board to support the industry in designing and developing more energy-efficient buildings. The projects are expected to leverage in an additional £60m of industry investment and £30m of extra funding from across government and other agencies.
The Government’s challenging target of an 80% reduction in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 called for innovation on a grand scale
Over the last five years £83m has already been invested in low carbon buildings, saving money for home owners, businesses and public facilities such as hospitals across the country.
Announcing the investment, Business Secretary, Vince Cable, said: “The UK’s new and existing buildings must adjust to a low carbon economy. Investing in energy-efficient construction projects is important to help industry and government achieve the aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025. I therefore warmly welcome the Technology Strategy Board’s investment of £60m in energy-efficient technology alongside the private sector.”
The construction industry contributes almost £90 billion to the UK economy and supports around three million jobs. This makes it well placed to take advantage of new and emerging energy-efficient technologies, commercialise them and then export them across the world.
Cable added: “Over the last five years the Technology Strategy Board has invested £83m of funding through the Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform. This has been supported by industry investment of £34m. The future direct economic benefits of this investment are expected to be more than £1.5 billion and three quarters of the organisations supported are SMEs with fewer than 250 staff.”
Investing in energy-efficient construction projects is important to help industry and government achieve the aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025
David Bott, director of innovation programmes at the Technology Strategy Board, told BBH : “The Government’s challenging target of an 80% reduction in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 called for innovation on a grand scale. We’ve been astounded by the enthusiasm with which the projects we’ve funded through our Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform have grasped that challenge.
The announcement comes ahead of the one year anniversary of the launch of the Government’s Industrial Strategy. Eleven sector-specific strategies have been produced alongside industry with the objective of achieving strong and sustainable growth across the UK and between industries.
