Clients, regulations and the tax system increasingly expect information in digital form. The odds are you already do some of this as part of your daily routine.
This toolkit is here to help you understand where else digital might help, and to guide you as future requirements become more digital.
Some recent digital legislation includes:
- 1 July 2026: Welsh building safety rules require a digital golden thread for higher-risk buildings.
- April 2026: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax begins, starting with sole traders and landlords whose income is over £50,000.
- October 2023: the Building Safety Act’s golden thread comes into force in England. Information on higher-risk buildings must be kept electronically.
- 2022: Making Tax Digital for VAT applies to every VAT-registered business.
Why digital pays
You will be asked for it: A client, a framework or building safety law will ask for information in a set digital form. A firm that already works that way can say yes at no extra cost.
It is the national goal now: In June 2026 Welsh Government set a mission to halve Wales’ productivity gap with the rest of the United Kingdom within 10 years. Welsh productivity sits about 15% below the UK average. That announcement does not mention digital, but a gap that size does not close while firms are still re-typing each other’s information.
Evidence is money: Retentions, valuations and disputes turn on what a firm can show. Recording work as it happens cuts the time spent proving it later.
Rework eats the margin: Work built from an out-of-date drawing gets done twice. Keeping one current version that everyone can find is one of the cheapest fixes there is.
You already own most of it: For many firms this is a change of habit more than a purchase. The tools are already on the laptop and in everyone’s pocket.
It travels down the chain: Earlier CEWales survey analysis pointed to small firms inside a larger contractor’s supply chain being ahead of similar firms outside one. Being asked appears to be what moves a firm, and we are testing that further.
Most of the gain sits between firms, not inside one: A drawing, a variation or an as-built record crosses 3 or 4 firms before anyone uses it. Digital working pays most at those handovers, which is why this toolkit is aimed at a supply chain and not a single firm.
What digital costs: Working digitally moves cost and can also remove it. Time goes in earlier, when a job is set up, and comes back later when the information is needed. On a short job with one trade and one client, a heavy process rarely pays, and the toolkit is being developed to help understand this.
Why does Wales need its own toolkit?
Around 39,900 construction enterprises are active in Wales, and about 38,900 of them employ fewer than 10 people (StatsWales, 2025). Most guidance on digital construction is written with large contractors in mind. This toolkit is written for the firms Wales has.
Proof from firms working in Wales
Case studies are being gathered from projects in Wales of any size, showing the difference digital made. If you have a project to put forward, tell us at info@cewales.org.uk.