'Dinosaurs' threaten contractual reform

Fears that contractual reform is in danger of being impeded by sectional interests have been taken up by Environment Secretary John Gummer.

The minister has urged industry representatives to show breadth of vision and firm leadership. 'We cannot afford to let progress get bogged down,' he said last week.

Gummer's plea came as reforms proposed in the Latham report faced a series of deadlocks. And one industry leader warned that 'the dinosaurs are still very much in evidence.'

Key areas of concern include:

n Local authority clients who are setting up their own construction forum to fight for a bigger say on the Construction Clients Forum (CCF). The local authorities feel that already they have not been sufficiently consulted in the reform process.

n Civil engineering contractors, who are charged with 'putting two fingers up' to the whole reform process. The civils are accused of failing to address the issues of restructuring both the JCT and its civil engineering equivalent and the Latham proposal for bringing the two together in a single, overarching body.

'The civils are still wedded to pay-when-paid,' said Rudi Klein, secretary of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group.

'They have just produced a new subcontract form to go with the ICE design and construct form. And it keeps pay-when-paid. In the present climate, that is appalling.'

n Building contractors, who are at odds with the specialist firms over both the extent to which existing JCT forms need to be rewritten to fit in with the Latham proposals and the extent to which this can be a step-by-step process.

Specialists have called for outside consultants to help with redrafting of JCT forms. Sir Michael Latham is due to meet building leaders today (23 February) to help speed up progress on this issue, which has been identified by John Gummer as 'crucial to the reduction of conflict'.
Contracts Bill plans due soon

Consultation papers on the possible shape of a Construction Contracts Bill are shortly to be published by the Government.

Legislative plans were announced last week by Environment Secretary John Gummer when he addressed the annual dinner of the Association of Consulting Engineers.