The UK needs to change if productivity is to increase

Peter Bierton

Chief Executive Officer at Mainmark.

Specialist in transforming and spearheading businesses within the construction, services, and engineering industries.

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The UK construction industry must cut through the bureaucratic red tape to avoid falling behind other countries when it comes to productivity.

We also need greater accountability and the introduction of a diverse range of industry experts and leaders to create the necessary regulations in the construction sector.

In the past, I have been involved in ground engineering projects across the globe. Right now, while there has been significant investment in the UK, by the time the pound gets through to the coalface or the person on the end of the shovel, the productivity you get from that money is far less than any other country that I’ve ever seen.

It is difficult to have bureaucrats that have never worked in industry create the regulation to ensure a productive industry. But we need to reset that and have the right people involved to make brave decisions on what is important and what is not.

The UK construction industry does not get a lot of output, despite the investment, and we need to empower industry experts and leaders to address productivity issues.

Although I am based in Australia, I recently visited the UK for three months, spending time with the Mainmark UK team headquartered in Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes. Mainmark was established in the UK in 2016 and provides effective solutions for a wide range of sectors, including residential, infrastructure and commercial.

Before that, I have decades of experience working on infrastructure, engineering and commercial projects in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. A number of these were transformative projects, such as Sydney Metro, Light Rail and major telecommunications expansion projects, across a diverse range of sectors.

In my opinion, there is now a vast opportunity available for those in the ground engineering space, which is where Mainmark is making a difference. Our targeted and less-disruptive methods are an alternative to major repair or demolition and rebuild. Our solution is quick, efficient and preserves asset life.

We want to become the asset lifecycle partner for the whole journey and become an intervention of choice for all clients, rather than us only being involved if any issues arise.

Mainmark provides effective solutions to many types of ground engineering problems in a wide range of sectors such as residential, industrial, commercial, civil engineering and mining as well as heritage buildings using innovative solutions to raise, re-level and re-support buildings that have been affected by subsidence. 

No single method can provide the solution to every ground engineering problem, so Mainmark developed its own state-of-the-art proprietary technologies. These include JOG Computer-Controlled Grouting which has been proven for raising large complex structures as well as Teretek® engineered resin injection solution, utilising proprietary deep-lift and void-fill methodologies. The deep-lift method is unique in that it both raises, re-levels and re-supports structures, and increases ground bearing capacity in the one process.