The CIOB’s membership is without a doubt the broadest of any professional body concerned with the built environment. Combined with our remit to act in the public interest, as outlined in our Royal Charter, this helps us to form and evolve research from a unique perspective on a whole range of issues, including the ethical conduct expected of construction managers and how we use construction as a vehicle to increase social mobility and improve productivity.

We set our research aims and reach our policy positions in consultation, using our members as well as our Policy Board. To support our research we frequently survey our members and also commission respected polling companies to ask the public and MPs for their views. Our research is based on solid evidence, ensuring that we provide policy makers with the right information in order to make informed decisions across a wide range of topics.

Our research is freely available, but its title, source and date of publication must be acknowledged if cited. Any content, including data and analysis, must also be reported accurately and not used in a misleading context.

Our most recent research includes:

Social Mobility and Construction: Building routes to opportunity
 December 2016 

This report highlights the critical role that construction plays in reversing the declining levels of economic and social mobility in the UK. It contains a specially commissioned survey of 1,094 working adults and results show how among the UK industries, construction ranks near the top for social and economic mobility. And while other industries, such as manufacturing, have shed skilled workers, the construction industry maintains a third of all employment in this occupation group. These skills trades not only provide social status and solid earning potential in themselves, but provide many with an opportunity and platform for progression within their career, from the trades through to management and professional roles.

Building a Fairer System: Tackling modern slavery in construction supply chains
July 2016

This report, produced in consultation with a number of businesses and NGOs, including Amnesty International, Verité, Engineers Against Poverty and the Institute for Human Rights and Business, examines the root causes of slavery, and sets out priority actions for moving the industry towards greater transparency.

Slavery remains a problem hidden in many sectors. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 21 million people in forced labour around the world, generating profits in the private economy of $150 billion. Interpol estimates that only 5 to 10 per cent of cases are ever reported.

Building a Fairer System is part of CIOB’s ongoing campaign responding to changing legislation and international protocols. The UK Modern Slavery Act, which came into force in 2015, requires UK organisations with a turnover of more than £36 million to report on how they are dealing with human rights issues in their supply chains.

The CIOB has also collaborated with industry alliance group Stronger Together to develop a best practice toolkit to help the construction industry tackle modern slavery in its global supply chains. Launched on 16 February 2016 the toolkit can be downloaded from: http://stronger2gether.org/construction/.

Productivity in Construction: Creating a framework for the industry to thrive
May 2016

This report examines the so-called ‘productivity puzzle’ facing the UK. Looking note just narrowly at construction’s own productivity, the report examines how the built environment supports productivity growth in the UK as a whole.

Using the Government’s 15-point productivity plan as a framework, we illustrate how, point by point, construction acts as an agent of change to improve productivity within the wide economy, how it might improve its own internal productivity, as well as highlights the opportunities and challenges in delivering improvement.

Crucially the report also suggests that current statistical data which measures construction’s productivity can be misleading. When the value of design, the materials and components, and much of the plant and machinery used on site are not counted.  It also questions how well the measures we see account for the improvement in quality or, for that matter, fewer site deaths.

A full list of our research can be accessed at: https://policy.ciob.org/research/

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