Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.3
The construction industry - narrowly defined
Examples of type of work
Areas of Construction
Water and sewerage
Energy
Gas and electricity
Roads
Airports, harbours, railways
Infrastructure
Public sector/housing associations
Private sector (new estates)
Housing
Schools, colleges, universities
Health facilities
Sports and leisure facilities
Services (police, fire, prisons)
Public non-residential
Factories
Warehouses
Oil refineries
Private industrial
PFI (and similar public private partnerships)
Schools/hospitals (where privately funded)
Restaurants, hotels, bars
Shops
Garages
Offices
Private commercial
Extensions and conversions
Renovations and refurbishment
Planned maintenance
Repair and maintenance
The percentage of public sector construction work in the UK has fallen
considerably since 1980, as many of the activities traditionally in the public domain
have been privatised. Utilities and services such as gas, electricity, water supply,
telecommunications and railways were previously 'pure' state owned activities;
today they are quasi-public - privately owned but 'regulated' and controlled by
specific government agencies. This means that there is a new expanding sector of
'regulated' private sector work that is reliant on public sector decisions before it can
be executed. More recently, the private sector has also been given a greater role in
the funding, building and maintenance of public facilities such as hospitals, schools,
prisons and roads. In these
public private partnerships
, the private sector organises
the funds and manages the risks, while the public sector specifies the level of service
required and ultimately owns the assets - as they are commonly returned to public
ownership after 10, 15 or 25 years. These 'regulated' and 'partnership' arrangements
are explained further in
Chapters 2
and
6
respectively. The important point for our
purposes is that expenditure on the construction of public facilities is increasingly
classified as private sector expenditure in the official data. (
Figure 2.4
on page 38
shows the distribution of work across the public and private sector divide over the
last 50 years.)
