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Relaunch for Latham reform
00:00 19 Aug 1998
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Exclusive by David Nunn
Following pressure from clients and the CBI, the Latham initiative will be given a new lease of life by the Government.
The Construction Industry Board - a body created by the Latham initiative, and sidelined by the Egan review - has now been given a central role in the implementation of the Task Force. Its drive to disseminate best practice is to be boosted in the autumn with a relaunch of the £2 million Construction Best Practice Programme.
The board will also take on a key role in one of the major stumbling blocks to emerge from the Task Force report - the difficulties of moving away from tendering in the public sector.
The CIB will begin an intensive education programme among local authorities over the next six months to increase the level of negotiated work. CIB sources say 85 per cent of construction workload among local authorities is let on the basis of cheapest price wins.
The Board wants half of local authority contracts to be placed on a quality and price assessment within two to three years. It envisages this as a halfway step towards introducing partnering deals on a large scale in local government.
"The way to get local authorities to change is not to tell them to scrap tendering. Getting them to overtly select on the basis of quality and price is the first and intermediate step," says a senior CIB source.
"The next step is to move to partnering for long-term framework agreements, as Camden have done. You still have competition in the selection, but it is for a five-year deal."
The CIB will also be working with the RIBA to target architects at regional level acting as client advisers. The CIB believes they give poor advice on how to procure.
"Along with local authorities, this is the other litmus test of whether the industry is really achieving fundamental change," says the source.
The Construction Clients' Forum will be working through the Board to ensure that contractors do not place all the emphasis on pleasing super-clients: "We want to see contractors accepting that they have a responsibility to the non-elite clients and not just expert. That is what we want to come out of the demonstration projects," said secretary, Anthony Pollington.
Following pressure from clients and the CBI, the Latham initiative will be given a new lease of life by the Government.
The Construction Industry Board - a body created by the Latham initiative, and sidelined by the Egan review - has now been given a central role in the implementation of the Task Force. Its drive to disseminate best practice is to be boosted in the autumn with a relaunch of the £2 million Construction Best Practice Programme.
The board will also take on a key role in one of the major stumbling blocks to emerge from the Task Force report - the difficulties of moving away from tendering in the public sector.
The CIB will begin an intensive education programme among local authorities over the next six months to increase the level of negotiated work. CIB sources say 85 per cent of construction workload among local authorities is let on the basis of cheapest price wins.
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The Board wants half of local authority contracts to be placed on a quality and price assessment within two to three years. It envisages this as a halfway step towards introducing partnering deals on a large scale in local government.
"The way to get local authorities to change is not to tell them to scrap tendering. Getting them to overtly select on the basis of quality and price is the first and intermediate step," says a senior CIB source.
"The next step is to move to partnering for long-term framework agreements, as Camden have done. You still have competition in the selection, but it is for a five-year deal."
The CIB will also be working with the RIBA to target architects at regional level acting as client advisers. The CIB believes they give poor advice on how to procure.
"Along with local authorities, this is the other litmus test of whether the industry is really achieving fundamental change," says the source.
The Construction Clients' Forum will be working through the Board to ensure that contractors do not place all the emphasis on pleasing super-clients: "We want to see contractors accepting that they have a responsibility to the non-elite clients and not just expert. That is what we want to come out of the demonstration projects," said secretary, Anthony Pollington.
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