Built environment sector: mission statement

The built environment sector encompasses those sectors and businesses which provide the works, goods and services to deliver the buildings, infrastructure and landscapes which are fundamental to the daily lives of people across Wales.

Sectoral insight, gathered through Welsh Government’s contractual relationship with Constructing Excellence in Wales, has demonstrated a need for strategic leadership, particularly in areas where there is no current policy that is specific to the built environment sector. This intelligence showcases the need to unify the sector around a meaningful shared vision towards efficiency, productivity, profitability, innovation, safety and sustainability. It also highlights a strong need to clearly define sector parameters and processes to build shared understanding. This includes the provision of achievable pathways across the full sector lifecycle that can also offer benefit for cross-sector shared dependencies as found in supply chains, labour skills and materials markets.

The purpose of this mission statement is to:

• Unify the sector (Business, Projects, People) around shared goals;
• Build knowledge, awareness and capability;
• Drive Net Zero ambitions and other key policy alignment; and
• Enhance local skills and create a resilient supply chain.

The built environment sector is a key part of the Welsh Government’s Foundational Economy definition and comprises a multitude of skilled, interconnected sectors which are part of a system of systems: built systems, natural systems and cyber physical systems. This list is not exhaustive:

• land, planning and surveying; heritage, retrofit, regeneration of existing built assets;
• architectural, interior design, urban design, landscape design, technologists and engineering design and development of building projects;
• construction of commercial buildings, domestic buildings, educational buildings, defence buildings, infrastructure and ancillary buildings (eg, supporting renewables), roads and motorways, bridges and tunnels, utility and water projects, landscaping and nature projects, neighbourhood and city design projects;
• specialist contractors, including electrical, mechanical, plumbing, building services, facilities management; estate management, building survey, historic conservation survey, demolition specialists;
• specialist professional services, including management, legal, environmental, health and safety;
• manufacture of products and Modern Methods of Construction including modular construction for use in early-stage sector decision making, planning, design, construction and post-occupancy as well as to support other industries with built environment technological innovations;
• use and occupation, repair and maintenance; and
• end of life, demolition, salvage, recycling and re-use.

The built environment sector comprises 16,450 VAT registered businesses in Wales in the construction industry representing 15% of all businesses operating in our economy, with 99% having fewer than fifty employees.

The industry has a turnover of £17.2bn (10% of Wales’ total economic activity) with a workforce of 83,565 employees (around one in 14 of all jobs in Wales). The sector provides a range of skilled and well-paid roles. It is an enabler of the well-being goals and ways of working of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act.

The sector can be an important driver of wealth creation and retention, with 99% of businesses within the built environment being headquartered in Wales.

In rural Wales, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of the built environment industry. These businesses are not just contributors, they are essential drivers of economic vitality, community development, and innovation.

Construction accounts for around a third of the £11bn spent through procurement in Wales each year. The procurement duties in the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, once fully in force, will place new duties on construction procurement. This is expected to be in early 2026.

Welsh Government wants a built environment sector where businesses are not just surviving but thriving. This means utilising all available levers to nurture and grow the sector and working with stakeholders to build on progress and further improve profitability, productivity, innovation, safety, employer of choice, skilled jobs, fair work and environmental impact.

We will encourage the sector to embrace best practice which will help grow our stock of medium sized enterprises and resilient local supply chains, leading to:

• stronger, local supply chains, anchored across parts of Wales;
• an increasingly productive part of the economy;
• professionally competent businesses and workforce, holding appropriate compliant and suitably audited accreditations;
• advancement of the digital economy of Wales;
• investment and support of local product innovation and development/supply;
• ethical supply chain behaviour, including best practice payment such as project bank accounts;
• adoption of modern methods of construction and development of new techniques towards industrialised construction principles;
• exploitation of tradable opportunities; and
• collaborative working and joint bidding to grow supply chain capacity and capability.

We will promote our Fair Work principles to further enable the sector to support more jobs and better jobs, assisting employers to:

• embrace Fair Work principles;
• support good, skilled, green jobs which provide local employment;
• grow competency to adopt technology, modern methods of construction, net zero and green skills;
• be employers of choice, retaining and attracting new talent;
• inform clear understanding of gaps in workforce;
• develop a diverse and competent workforce;
• create healthier communities through providing Fair Work opportunities for those furthest from employment;
• collaboratively deliver apprenticeships/shared apprenticeship schemes; and
• become better connected to the education system.

We will work with the sector to uphold the highest sustainability and safety standards, enhancing delivery of projects so that we collectively:

• deliver quality projects which last the duration expected and provide value for money;
• aim for retrofit first, closed loop zero waste, adopt whole life carbon assessments and Circular Economy principles and approaches, and use regenerative materials and renewable energy sources;
• support Just Transition to Net Zero;
• a sector fully engaged with clean energy, offshore wind, hydrogen and nuclear;
• engaging with innovation to support continuous improvement; and
• building in safety to all aspects of operation

We will work with the sector to promote the positive impact that it and the work it delivers has on communities and people across Wales, leading to:

• projects of good design which support viable place, enhancing wellbeing;
• projects which are sympathetic to the needs of local communities, the positive impacts of which are captured through use of the Value Toolkit;
• employment strategies aligned to public sector ‘grow your own’ approaches; and
• Connecting transport infrastructure project delivery

We will work with stakeholders to further standardise procurement approaches and grow local capability for bidding for contracts, including:

• utilising a value-based approach to procurement using the Value Toolkit;
• development of a visible, consistent, centralised, digital contract pipeline;
• supporting businesses to become more competent in bidding for contracts;
• deployment of the construction-specific duties in the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023;
• growing public sector collaboration across sectors, including delivery of joint developments on shared sites;
• public sector contracts which are open for local businesses and joint consortia;
• client and contractor work collaboratively to most advantageous tender;
• more standardised contracts and conditions; and
• proportionate approach to risk sharing.

We will engage the sector and work collaboratively in delivering the ambition set out in this mission statement so that it is progressed through a joint action plan. This will enable agreement of what success will look like and development of a plan which can be monitored throughout the journey of delivering our shared objectives.

The built environment will be incorporated within cross cutting policy to support priority initiatives, enabling a better understanding of sector capability and capacity to be established.

An annual report of progress will be jointly developed and published.