Come and have a go if you think your hardware could tackle the South West housing crisis

News
23/11/2017

West builders have brushed aside national reports that hundreds of thousands of construction industry jobs are about to be superseded by robots – resulting in a catastrophic drop in demand for bricklayers, carpenters and other on-site trades.


Helm Construction Commercial Manager Chris Catley said predictions that automation could replace more than 600,000 builders’ jobs by 2040 were based more on theoretical testing rather than everyday, on-site reality.


And he thinks it may be some time before robots become commonplace on Bristol building sites.


“Here in the South West we are told we will need at least 105,000 new homes over the next 20 years – how on earth are we going to be able to afford, manufacture or import the hundreds if not thousands of robots required to deliver that many houses in that time frame?

“The sites proposed in the regional spatial plan aren’t likely to be perfectly level, easily accessible and ‘shovel ready’ – they are more likely to feature a slope or gradient, variable ground conditions and an array of complicating factors such as bad weather, underground pipework or drainage issues.”

He added: “Every builder in Bristol could increase their productivity levels if every site was a billiard table – but in our experience they are not!”


Fast-growing Helm Construction is active on a dozen sites across Bristol on sites of up to 20 and more units.


“Our sites are often tight inner city building projects where space is at an absolute premium and there isn’t the freedom of movement available to effectively deploy autonomous robots which have been pre-programmed to lay bricks. We have built houses on some of the steepest streets in Bristol - including Totterdown!

“And while we pride ourselves on employing every piece of time saving software we can while designing and pricing our projects, we don’t believe robots can possibly be the answer on every site.”


Chris Catley was commenting on new research by engineering firm Mace, predicting a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ would reduce the number of tradesmen required to a few thousand.


“Many of our sites require complex ground preparation, others have been built within an existing structure – requiring a very flexible approach and an ability to figure out how we can work around the obstacles.”

Chris said the prospect of laying off workers ran completely contrary to current conditions on the ground, where many firms were struggling to attract and retain staff.

“Our industry is still attempting to recruit and replace the thousands of immigrant workers who have left or are thinking of leaving the industry to return home as a result of Brexit.

“The immediate task is to train and recruit people with the necessary skills to fulfil existing requirements – not lay them off in favour of artificially intelligent hardware.”


For further information contact Helm Construction on 01454 634 020.