The Future of Construction – interview with ECA CEO Steve Bratt

“Business can’t just focus on getting greener, or safer, or fairer”, says Steve Bratt, Group CEO of ECA, in today’s Future of Construction business report in The Times.  Speaking on behalf of Actuate UK, the alliance representing engineering services, he says future success relies on acknowledging that safety, fairness and net zero go hand in hand.

Engineering services are the things that go into an infrastructure project and make it work.  Many of the government's top priorities, such as the green agenda, energy efficiency, and monitoring of fire and safety systems, rely heavily on the sector.

He goes on to say to make progress industry must collaborate:

“The construction industry is a complex and fragmented arrangement.  We build a new product in a new place with new people every time.  Imagine trying to build a car that way.”

“You need to bring the chain together so when we build this new thing in a new place with new people, they feel joined up, they feel like they're working for the same aim.”

Steve calls on the government to take a more rigorous approach to enforce the Building Regulations.  For a law to work he says, it needs to reward responsible firms who are compliant and are doing things properly.  He also wants the government to sort out the disputed term ‘competence’, so the industry knows what ‘competence’ looks like in the building safety regulations.

“If we can create an environment where people feel safe to innovate and invest, you're much more likely to get an outcome which is greener and safer and fairer for all”.

Against the backdrop of escalating energy prices, fuel poverty and net zero targets, ECA draws on its history to offer practical energy policy solutions and represent our Members at government and industry bodies, such as Actuate UK.