The 2011 UK Government Construction Strategy (UK Cabinet Office, 2011) challenged the construction sector to review their business models and practices to move away from adversarial relationships to collaborative ones and to identify cost reduction and innovation opportunities within the supply chain to provide better value for money. This approach encouraged all construction supply chain stakeholders to work together, where appropriate, to provide an integrated cost-efficient solution that meets the required outcome. Central to this strategy aim was that fully collaborative 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) be an industry requirement by 2016. This target provided the UK construction sector with a four-year window to prepare for the adoption of BIM technologies, processes and collaborative behaviours that aimed to modernise working practices to improve efficiencies during each phase of the project lifecycle. This was further framed by the following ambitious targets set out in the subsequent 2025 Construction Strategy document (HM Government, 2013): reduction of 33 per cent in the initial cost of construction and the whole-life cost of built assets; 50 per cent reduction in the overall time, from inception to completion for new-build and refurbished assets; reduction of 50 per cent in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from built environment activities; and a 50 per cent reduction in the trade gap between total exports and total imports for construction products and materials.

Project IGI 3 The Mark