Budget 2016: Government to push ahead on Level 3 BIM

March 2016

While the Chancellor's plans for a tax on sugary drinks may have grabbed most headlines, there was much for the construction industry to digest in the 2016 Budget - not least an explict statement of intent when it comes to developing Level 3 BIM.

The budget 2016 policy paper contains a number of action points on digital (7.49) including:

The government will develop the next digital standard for the construction sector – Building Information Modelling 3 – to save owners of built assets billions of pounds a year in unnecessary costs, and maintain the UK’s global leadership in digital construction.

The move signals the transfer of responsibility for BIM from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to the Treasury. With BIM Level 2 mandatory on public sector projects from 4 April 2016 this was confirmation from the Government on the next staging post in the Building Information Modelling revolution.

A policy paper - Government Construction Strategy: 2016-2020 from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority sets out more details on how delivery, efficiency and perfomance across economic and social infrastructure projects might be achieved.

Read more: NBS - BIM Levels explained

The government was also keen to recognise the importance of the construction industry to the UK economy. The manufacturing, construction and service sectors are now all larger than at the beginning of 2010 - and at the end of last year 62.6% of all employment growth has been in high skilled occupations.

Among the measures announced by the Chancellor this year were cuts in corporation tax to 17% (benefitting over one million companies) and confirmation that 600,000 SMEs will benefit from having to pay no business rates at all as well as greater support for the self employed.

The introduction of an apprenticeship levy from next April will see employers receiving a 10% top up on their monthly contributions in Engalnd which will be available for employers to spend on apprenticeship training.

There was progress to report too on a number of high profile construction projects - including more work on options for the High Speed 2 and High Speed 3 rail lines and the construction of the £230m A6 to Manchester Airport relief road.

You can find more details on Budget 2016 , including the documentation in full, on the gov.uk website.