Poor perception of the construction industry is partly down to not enough public buildings being built, according to the founder of Leighs Construction.
Anthony Leighs was responding to a survey of 33 of the construction sector's leaders presented at last year’s New Zealand Construction Industry Forum.
It found 42% rated the industry's performance as poor and an additional 10% labelled it as terrible. Performance was average according to 29% compared with 19% who believed performance was good. No one surveyed thought it was excellent.
Leighs thought part of the reason was not enough public buildings were getting built.
"A lot of that is everyone is operating a bit beyond capacity and, when you overlay that, there are not enough skills, and the design community is overstretched as well," he said.
Leighs said those factors, mixed with much more complex builds taking place, all led to poor outcomes.
However, Leighs Construction prides itself on being an inclusive and welcoming workplace looking to get more people into the industry.
Founded in 1993, the bright yellow company moniker can be seen on major projects from Dunedin to Auckland including the $125 million University of Otago Dental School and the $100m extension to Mt Eden Prison. It is hoping to get a slice of the Scott Base reconstruction work currently under consideration.
Recognised by a raft of industry awards for various projects, Leighs chaired the Master Builders Federation for a decade until 2017. He was commended in the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and also received a special commendation for his contribution to Canterbury at the Champion Canterbury Awards.
The 47-year-old lives with his wife Jane and daughters in a $4.6m Riccarton home and, in addition to being an associate partner of the Highlanders rugby franchise, he recently acquired one of the world’s fastest mono hulls, an Elliot 35SS, to pursue his love of competitive sailing.
2018: $70 million