The Real Cost Of A Construction Site Security Breach

Effective security at construction sites is non-negotiable. You, your project, your people, your materials, your plant, even your visitors – professional security impacts everything and maintains site safety. But what if something goes wrong, and a site security breach happens?

What’s The Biggest Expense After A Construction Site Security Incident?

This is, in the vast majority of circumstances, the impact on finances. Conservative estimates place the average cost of a security breach at a construction site in the tens of thousands of pounds, before ever factoring in the cost of construction site theft on your bottom line.

Here, the cost increases astronomically, with the latest figures from fleet and asset management company Abax placing the wider industry costs of theft in excess of £1 billion every year. Those are just approximations, too – the actual figures are likely to be higher by a significant margin.

There’s no limit to what can be stolen, either. While many contractors will assume that locking their plant machinery and removing the keys is enough, opportunistic thieves, particularly those linked to drug use or antisocial behaviour, rarely treat locked sites as a deterrent.

Stories like this from the Warrington Guardian show that this is far from a passing trend, while reports from Hampshire Police forecast the value of a single “bust” in the region of £570,000 worth of plant machinery. 

Our guide to the most stolen items from construction sites explores the issues facing the sector in more depth. Those figures represent a fraction of what theft actually costs the sector.

Financials are far from the only thing impacted by a security breach at a construction site, though.

The Invisible Costs Of Construction Site Security Breaches

There is a huge range of “hidden” costs associated with a vulnerability in your site security, whether that’s indirectly impacting costs, missing deadlines, reducing faith in your work, or even potential insolvency and closure. Here’s what we class as the biggest areas to consider:

Rising Insurance Premiums

One of the aspects that many overlook when considering the impact of a security breach at your site is how it’ll factor into future insurance renewals. Damages, thefts, and recovery costs all factor into the rate you pay for insuring the work you do, and a serious incident can see your premiums increase.

Under the CDM 2015 regulations, you’re legally required to keep a log of the site security measures you have in place. You’ll also be required by law to maintain records of any site intrusion or breach to be able to get the right price for your insurance policy, as well as those site security measures.

That includes Contractors All Risk (CAR) insurance. In fact, tradespeople platform MyBuilder points towards a history of claims (even smaller ones like a cut fence or stolen power tools) quickly causing insurance premiums to rise. Higher-value thefts and repeated risks also mean there’s a distinct possibility that you’ll be unable to get affordable insurance at all.

Reputational Damage

An issue that often doesn’t materialise until it’s too late, a security breach at your construction site can shake public faith in the services you deliver. That’s particularly true if it’s a project that the general public is likely to see (like a new retail premises or a city-centre project) or be part of (playgrounds or other public facilities, for instance).

Damage to your company’s reputation has the potential to lead to much greater consequences. A recent story from News Shopper illustrates how that can happen to even larger firms, with the well-known Ardmore Group entering administration as a result of historic health and safety and security breaches.

Social media amplifies this further. While news stories like the one above are usually reserved for more renowned businesses, reviews and comments on social media pages can quickly spread a story without it ever broaching mainstream news.

Lost Or Deferred Work

With the construction industry being a multi-billion-pound sector, and so many companies vying for a diverse pool of work, it’s a challenge to secure site work in the first place. From there, it requires a stable supplier – one that understands the landscape of the industry and the importance of effective site security – to maintain that work.

Security breaches undermine that hard work and determination. Even something as simple as a loose Heras fencing panel or broken access controls can contribute towards work being lost, particularly if it’s spotted by a rival construction company or posted to social media. 

It might also mean that work is deferred, especially if you’ve won work with a client without declaring any previous security breaches. That in itself creates issues, especially if you’ve already planned to have contractors or tradespeople on site at a specific time and the start of your works is delayed.

From there, there are the issues with paying your staff – already complex at the best of times – and with creating a schedule that your client and any other parties can stick to.

Project Delays

Security breaches that happen midway through a project (or during a specific phase of the project you’re working on, such as a new batch of new-build homes) can – and often do – lead to delays. 

Whether that’s a loss of equipment or machinery, damaged infrastructure like scaffolding or timber frames, or a more serious H&S violation, it can have disastrous consequences in terms of the deadlines you’re expected to meet. On a major build, these are often incredibly tight and rely on you and your labourers completing everything by a set time.

Any delay, even just a day or two, can push projects back, impact buyers and clients, and lead to financial losses across the board. Serious incidents can make that far worse, with indefinite closures and delays on the cards if there’s an egregious-enough breach.

We’ve seen many examples of that happening. While this example from Construction News concerns one of the UK’s largest construction companies, Balfour Beatty, it’s a familiar story for so many smaller firms that won’t have the same capital to soak up the costs of delaying a project.

Mental Health Concerns

While not as quantifiable as some of the more financial concerns that stem from a construction site security breach, there is an undoubted impact on the mental well-being of anyone affected by that breach. That’s most often the principal contractor, but it’s equally true that other contractors, tradespeople, clients and visitors can all experience some form of mental health impact from a security breach.

A sobering report from On The Tools shone a light on the issues that face a huge proportion of those in the construction industry and how that affects their mental health. The key finding from that report is that 69% of all those surveyed reported an adverse effect on their mental health after a security breach (usually in the form of tool theft).

68% said that they worry daily about the threat of a repeat incident, and quotes from real tradespeople underline how much it can affect those in the trade. That’s best exemplified by a quote from a tradesperson interviewed as part of the report, who said that “the psychological impact stays with you longer [than the financial impact]”.

That same On The Tools report contextualises the mental health burden more broadly, noting that of the 3,946 suicides recorded in 2020, 16.2% were those in a skilled trade – a sobering indication of the pressures facing the construction workforce.

Combatting Construction Site Security Breaches

While there are significant untold impacts of security vulnerabilities at your construction site, it’s never wise to wait for an incident before acting. Implementing the right security measures proactively, through a trusted partner, means you’re not dealing with the fallout of a serious incident alone.

The most effective approach, and one ProFM has delivered across hundreds of construction projects, is a blended package that couples many of the basics (like Heras fencing, gates and barriers, and access control doors) with the more specialist approach that professional security can bring (like solar-powered CCTV towers and SIA-licensed manned guarding packages).

That’s the layered approach you’ll receive from ProFM Group. We’ve built an exceptional reputation over the last 30 years as a trusted partner for construction site security, including our well-documented work with SIKA, as well as projects with Persimmon Homes, AHK Developments and Rhodar.

We’re able to implement a solution that’s designed with your unique site in mind. That all begins with a detailed site analysis to understand where your vulnerabilities are, how a possible trespasser or criminal could exploit them, and what we can deliver to what we can deliver to protect your site, your people and your timeline.

Whether that’s round-the-clock manned guarding on hand to support patrols and static support at strategic points around your site, reinforced fencing and perimeter detection packages, or a solar-powered CCTV tower solution, we’ll always design a package that’s built to minimise the risk of a security breach.