Important information for all business owners embarking on construction work – read on to find out how get the most from your building project and avoid common pitfalls.
The scheme, devised by the Construction Clients’ Leadership Group (CCLG) and developed and funded by BEIS, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), HSE and CCLG members, aims to help business owners to avoid common pitfalls, and get the very best outcome from their building project, whilst understanding and complying with the responsibilities of being a ‘construction client’, as set out in CDM 2015 regulations.
Gren Tipper, CCLG’s Operations Director, explains that the scheme’s website provides a wealth of information drawn from trusted industry sources which should answer most questions these ‘new clients’ have.
‘The intention is that by looking at what other business owners have done, new clients will pick up most of the answers to questions they will want to ask. If they have any more questions after that, they are able to fill in a form online and we will arrange a call for them to discuss things in more detail with a client buddy’.
Who are the buddies?
The buddies are from experienced construction clients who are members of the CCLG, including The Crown Estate, Tideway, Heathrow Airport, Liverpool University, Leeds University, ProCure22 and Imperial College London. They are giving their time voluntarily and there is no cost to business owners accessing the scheme.
Why should the industry support the scheme?
Explaining why the industry should get involved, Tipper said ‘So often, new clients can be clear on their business needs, but don’t accurately translate this into firm requirements from a building project, so they go to the industry with an ill-informed brief, and get quotes back for something which is poorly defined, and then there is a tendency to select the lowest price, without understanding what is or is not included. This scheme should help ensure clients are well-informed.’
Having construction clients understand clearly how they fit into the construction process is so important – unless the client is fully engaged in the project and has the knowledge and confidence to play their part effectively, quality and budgets can be severely compromised.
To find out more about the buddy scheme visit https://www.cclg.co.uk/clientbuddy, and to locate Master Builders in your area for your next commercial construction project simply use our Find a Builder search.