Client revolt forces Task Force rethink

Exclusive by David Nunn



The Deputy Prime Minister's Task Force has received an embarassing setback with clients threatening to withdraw their support.

The CBI's representative Ian Reeve effectively threatened to resign over concerns that an elite handful of major clients had hijacked industry reforms, leaving no place for the occasional and industrial clients.

The row caused an emergency meeting at the Department of Environment Transport and Regions (DETR) and forced a number of key concessions to keep clients on side.

"For the occasional clients the industry works in a totally different way to the elite clients who have led this initiative, and will continue to do so for many years," said one senior industry source. "Ian Reeve represented very forcibly the CBI's view that it is these clients who matter [to the industry's future]."

The divisions among clients erupted at an emotive meeting of the Construction Industry Board the week after the Task Force report was launched. According to insiders half the meeting was taken up by their grievances over the handling of report.

The following Wednesday Mavis McDonald, deputy secretary of DETR, called for an urgent meeting with representives of the clients' forum. She was accompanied by John Hobson, head of the construction sponsorship directorate, who has personal responsibility for the Task Force.

The client's forum were reprensented by Terry Rochester, chairman (Highways Agency); Ian Reeves, deputy chairman (High-Point Rendell) and Anthony Pollington, secretary.

John Hobson was reportedly "shocked" by the depth of feeling and apologised for DETR's handling of the Task Force.

In what is widely hailed as a direct concession, DETR announced shortly after the meeting that Tony Jackson - chairman of the Construction Industry Board - would be given one of four seats on the Task Force steering group chaired by construction minister Nick Raynsford. Sources say the CCF pressure was the death knell for proposal to have a wider group of power players, including senior contractors such as Tarmac Chief Executive Neville Simms.

A source from the clients' forum said: "Clients felt that the Task Force was applicable to the whole of the demand side, not just an elite. Much of what they asked for has been conceded with the appointment of Tony Jackson to the steering group, and a far more central role for the Construction Industry Board."

The full membership of the senior steering group was announced last week: construction minister Nick Raynsford (chairman); BAA chairman, Sir John Egan; Paymaster General, Sir Geoffrey Robinson and Tony Jackson. Several senior sources told CJ that senior DETR civil servants argued against Sir John's appointment, but were overruled by John Prescott.

The meeting with the CCF ended genially with a round of drinks. Afterward, sources claim that Hobson and McDonald were "certain" to tell John Prescott and Sir John Egan they must take a more co-operative and less confrontational line.

l The ability of the Task Force to achieve major change has appeared to reduce in recent weeks as it emerged that local authorities are deeply nervous about moving away from compulsory competitve tendering. These concerns led to the Treasury hurrying out a guidance note that seemed to contradict a key aspect of the Egan report.

Further reports on page 3.