Latham slams Tory record - Sir Michael's five year plan

Sir Michael Latham outlined a manifesto for the industry over the next five years and the five main areas the industry will need to address:

l promote non-adversarial cost reduction;

l get the message of good procurement over to lay clients;

l promote teamwork and partnering;

l promote more effective performance on the supply side;

l address the legal issues left out of the Construction Act such as trust funds, win/win contract reform, liability reform and compulsory latent defects insurance.

Benchmarking systems need to be set up, Sir Michael insisted, in order to establish how the industry was getting on with partnering. Specialist designers should be integrated at an earlier stage and the mass of pre-qualification systems got rid of, he added.

He argued that the supply side had to improve its performance on improving safety, reducing waste, boosting training and equal opportunities and fighting the cowboys. Sir Michael Latham has slammed the Government's poor progress in promoting the Private Finance Initiative and the 18 month delay in implementing the new construction act.

The former Conservative MP and author of the Constructing the Team report on improving productivity in the industry, lambasted the Government for delays in implementing the Construction Act and for meddling with standard contract forms.

"The Construction Act should be brought forward to 1 November 1997. It is absurd that it should be delayed until 1 January 1998, when the Act received full Royal Assent last July. I was only given 12 months to produce my entire review. Surely it doesn't need 18 months to draft a set of regulations?

"Standard contract forms should not be amended and the Government should not alter its own contracts, especially GC/Works 1. More use should be made of the Engineering and Construction Contract and it should also not be amended."

Sir Michael was speaking at the inauguration of Bob Harris as the new President of the Electrical Contractors Association last week.

He said that the Government must fully sort out PFI: "Specialist contractors have their worries about the process: that it will produce adversarial burdens on them, because the bidding is uneconomic. Public sector clients are not bothered as they have passed on the risk. This must not happen."

The solution, according to the chairman of the 1994-95 joint Government/Industry review of construction, is for public sector clients to insist on a proper partnership among the PFI parties and be prepared to pay for it.

He also said that the PFI needed strong political leadership. The future Government should set up a Cabinet sub-committee, preferably headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, to drive the PFI forward. He said the sub-committee should establish benchmarks and publish regular reports on progress.

Sir Michael suggested the government failed to show leadership in setting up trust funds for subcontractors, liability reform and the introduction of compulsory latent defects. "I believe we have got to look at these issues again. Surely we can do better than the current nightmare of litigation and lawyers' letters," he said

He ended with a warning to the industry: "We must keep these issues in front of Government. We must all speak up and speak as one.

"If by 2000 AD we have not addressed these issues, then people will ask what is wrong with our industry. They will then try to alter it for us. We must not let this happen."