As the world begins to pick up the pieces of normal life, with the first vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic on the horizon, it is a good time to assess areas of the construction sector which are impacting on people’s health and quality of life.

It has become clear from our post-Grenfell site inspections that the relentless search for “value for money” has impacted negatively on the lives of thousands of people.

This is exacerbated by a perpetual default to minimum standards across the industry which is championed most notably by the design-and-build contract in its unadulterated form. But this fixed-price form of contract is not entirely to blame. There has also been a loss of competence and a culture of “passing the buck” when things have gone wrong, which the Grenfell Inquiry has highlighted.

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