Cost vs. production: disparities in social housing construction in Britain and Germany

The nature of the labour process in the British construction industry is different from that in Germany. The rationale of the British system is based on controlling costs through overseeing contract relations, themselves circumscribing a range of narrow, clearly defined and priced tasks. The production process has become secondary and production expertise restricted. In contrast, in Germany cost aspects are incorporated into, rather than separated from, the production system, built on the interaction of capital and labour and on a high level of production expertise. Employment relations rather than contract relations predominate and circumscribe a set of skills drawn from the potential of the labour force and dependent on broad-based vocational education. A detailed investigation of social housebuilding projects and the firms involved in Britain and Germany reveals the need for more skills, and a qualitatively different constellation of skills, professional and operative, in Britain.