- Only 21 per cent say they are fully prepared to meet Building Safety Act requirements
- Awareness of the legislation stands at 98 per cent
- Just 14 per cent fully understand the golden thread 84 per cent report product substitutions taking place on site
- Only seven per cent believe the government's target of delivering 1.5 million new homes by 2030 will be met
London, 24 July 2026: While 98 per cent of construction professionals are aware of the Building Safety Act, only 21 per cent say they are fully prepared to meet its requirements nearly three years after key provisions of the legislation came into force, according to new research from Barbour ABI and GS1 UK.
The findings highlight a significant gap between awareness of building safety reforms and readiness to implement them in practice.
The research comes nine years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy prompted the most significant overhaul of building safety regulation in a generation and nearly three years after key provisions of the Building Safety Act came into force.
Awareness of the golden thread, the continuous record of building safety information intended to support accountability throughout a building's lifecycle, is also widespread. Nine in 10 construction professionals say they are aware of the concept, yet only 14 per cent say they fully understand it.
The findings form part of a report from Barbour ABI and GS1 UK examining how construction product information is managed across the sector and the impact this has on productivity, compliance and building safety.
The research found that product information remains fragmented, inconsistent and difficult to share across the construction supply chain.
Despite growing regulatory requirements, the sector remains heavily reliant on static documents such as PDFs and product brochures to manage construction product information. As information moves between manufacturers, distributors, contractors and building owners, maintaining accurate, consistent and trusted records can become increasingly difficult, particularly when products are substituted or updated during a project's lifecycle.
Three out of five construction professionals say inefficiencies in managing construction product information are hampering progress, while almost half describe current approaches as disorganised.
The challenge becomes particularly important when products are substituted on site, a practice reported by 84 per cent of respondents. In these situations, accurate and accessible product information is essential to ensure safety, compliance and performance requirements continue to be met.
Many of the difficulties highlighted in the research stem from a fundamental issue: product information is often difficult to link consistently to a single product identity across organisations. Without that common reference point, tracking substitutions, demonstrating compliance and maintaining accurate records becomes significantly harder.
Iain Walker, director of industry engagement at GS1 UK, said: "The findings suggest the industry's challenge is no longer awareness. Most construction professionals are familiar with the Building Safety Act and aware of the golden thread.
"The challenge is creating reliable, consistent product information that can be shared and trusted across organisations and throughout the lifecycle of a building.
"Building safety depends on having confidence in the information that sits behind the products used in a building. When that information is difficult to access, difficult to verify or difficult to maintain, compliance becomes harder to demonstrate."
The report also highlights wider concerns about the sector's ability to improve productivity and meet growing delivery demands.
Only seven per cent of construction professionals believe the government's target of delivering 1.5 million new homes by 2030 will be met. The research also found that three out of five construction professionals believe inefficiencies in managing product information are slowing progress, while previous analysis suggests poor product information could be costing the industry up to £3.8 billion each year through avoidable inefficiencies.
Iain Walker added: "Construction is under pressure to build faster, build safer and deliver more. Trusted product information underpins all three.
"The sector already has access to many of the tools needed to improve how information is managed. The task now is to make product information easier to identify, easier to share and easier to trust.
"If we can do that, we can strengthen compliance, improve productivity and help create a safer built environment."
GS1 UK is calling on industry and government to accelerate the adoption of common data standards for construction products, set clearer expectations for how digital product information should be structured and shared, and provide targeted financial and technical support to help SMEs adopt the systems and skills needed to meet new regulatory requirements.
Without faster progress, the sector risks falling short on both safety expectations and delivery targets, with significant operational and economic consequences.
Notes to editors
For further information or requests for interviews, please contact:
- Max Fairhurst, max.fairhurst@redbrickroad.com, 07799 739438
- Alex Cox, alexander.cox@gs1uk.org, 07464946769
About the report
GS1 UK undertook this research in partnership with Barbour ABI.
The report is based on the results from an online survey with construction professionals in the UK, as well as a series of in-depth one-to-one interviews with senior construction professionals.
The 15 in-depth one-on-one interviews took place throughout September and October 2025 with senior construction professionals from a range of professional organisations, government and construction companies. Each interview took place over Microsoft Teams and lasted approximately one hour.
The survey was conducted online between late October 2025 to January 2026. A total of 317 construction professionals from across the UK participated. These participants worked for a wide variety of organisations. Of those construction professionals, 53 per cent work for an organisation providing construction product information (such as a manufacturer or distributor), and 43 per cent use the product information within their role (such as consultants or contractors).
All organisation sizes were represented, with the most common being small organisations.
These organisations operate across the UK and in a variety of sectors within the built environment.
The report can be downloaded here: GS1 UK | Construction’s product information problem
About GS1 UK
Whether online, in store or in a hospital, the common language of GS1 global standards is helping our community of more than 60,000 organisations across the UK to uniquely identify, describe and track anything, creating greater trust in data for everyone.
From product barcodes to patient wristbands, GS1 standards have been transforming the way we work and live for 50 years. We are now embarking on the next 50 years of industry transformation delivered through QR codes powered by GS1.