Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.4
Value of construction output in Great Britain
Types of work
Value of Output (£million)
(Current prices)
2000
2005
2010
Infrastructure
7,421
7,702
12,660
Housing - public
1,054
9,200
2,207
20,112
4,770
14,281
private
Public non-residential
3,826
8,279
14,204
Private industrial
4,449
5,293
3,573
Private commercial
18,424
26,064
23,312
41,630
Repair and maintenance
26,655
39,427
Total (of all work)
71,029
109,084
114,430
Source:
Construction Statistics Annual (ONS 2011a: Table 2.1).
Sources of International Data
A
narrow definition
of the construction industry confines official statistical data
to the 'site-based' activities of firms involved with buildings and infrastructure. As
Table 1.3
shows, this data is typically disaggregated into house building, private
commercial and industrial building (that is, non-residential), infrastructure (civil
engineering), repair and maintenance, and so on. Across Europe it is possible to see
some common trends. Aggregating figures across 27 European countries, 26 per cent
of construction output is repair and maintenance, 19 per cent is house building,
22 per cent is infrastructure and 33 per cent is non-residential (FIEC 2012).
A modern alternative, however, is to widen the statistical definition and go
beyond the narrow boundaries created by the international classification to include
the whole life cycle of construction: design, production, use, facility management,
demolition, etc. In fact, the Pearce Report (2003) argued that to fully understand the
extent of what is meant by a sustainable industry required data relating to the broad
scope of construction productivity including its environmental and social impacts.
(The new approach adopted in this text will help to clarify the contributions
that the sector makes to these wider concerns.) As Pearce (2003: 24) defined it,
a
broad definition
should include the mining and quarrying of raw materials, the
manufacture and sale of construction products, and the related professional services
such as those of architects, engineers and facilities managers. For example, a
detailed analysis of current available data in Great Britain indicates that in addition
to the 1,200,000 workers employed in the traditional construction sector, there
are approximately 450,000 engineers, architects, facilities managers and chartered
surveyors supplying professional services relating to construction and property,
about 650,000 employed in the manufacture of building products and equipment,
