Trade committee calls for a construction chief

Government construction policy and procurement is so fragmented that the sector needs a ‘chief construction officer’ to take hold of the situation.

The Business and Enterprise Committee called for a construction ‘champion’ as it published its strategic review into the sector, Construction Matters, today.

• Construction Confederation welcomes chief construction officer plan
• UCATT sees 'some positives' in Business and Enterprise report

• View the report in full here

“The postholder would provide a single point of engagement between the industry and the public sector, having operational involvement in policy and regulatory matters across departments,” it said.

Chairman of the Committee Peter Luff MP told CJ that the role was a more practical way to pull together all the different strands of construction policy than a dedicated construction minister.

“That idea is never going to happen. Although the industry is 8% or 9% of the economy, there’s still another 92% or 91%. You can’t have a minister for every bit of it. What is important is to get some continuity in the bureaucracy that supports ministers. I’m not talking about some jobsworth. It will be someone quite senior – a distinguished engineer probably,” he said.

"They will also act as a lobby group in both directions. It will be quite a big role involving everything that touches the industry," he added.

The idea is the headline initiative in a 125-page report that makes recommendations to improve construction, having taken on board submissions from across the industry.

Among other areas covered in the report are:

• Procurement – the Committee said it is “seriously concerned” that the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) does not have sufficient resources to implement best practice and recommended that staffing levels be reviewed. It also accused the government of “not doing enough as a client” to engage with the supply chain at an early stage and called for greater integrated working.
• Health and Safety – the Committee said it was “shocked” that deaths had risen to 77 in 2006/07 and called for the HSE to “devote more resources to inspection”.
• Bogus self employment - the Committee said it had heard evidence of companies wrongfully classifying directly employed workers as self-employed and called on the government to ensure that HMRC had enough resources to monitor the situation.
• Olympics – it told contractors it was “disappointed” in the low number of bids for London 2012 venues and called for a “better response” to remaining contracts.
• Skills – The report highlighted a need for training for the industry's future workforce, improving skills among existing workers, and a boost for research and development funding. It said it was a “disgrace” that 75% of firms don’t offer apprenticeships and called on employers to “do their part by taking on more apprentices”.

The government now has 90 days to respond to the Committee’s recommendations.

The inquiry was announced in April 2007 and was followed by a series of evidence sessions towards the end of last year.

The report, one of the biggest in the history of the Business & Enterprise Committee's (formerly the Trade and Industry Select Committee) history, has seen the UK construction landscape change considearbly since it opened.

But Luff stressed that although economic conditions have worsened, it did not mean that construction should shy away from the report's recommendations.

"The message we've got here is yes we've acknowledged there are problems, particularly in the housebuilding sector. But there are still huges levels of investment going on in infrastructure. And this is a report to build a more sustainable construction industry over the longer term," he said.

Meanwhile he acknowledged that much had happened with Heathrow's Terminal 5, held up several times as an example of a model construction project, but that the difficulties with T5's opening were to do with "the way the customer chose to introduce the equipment in the building" and had no impact on the report's final recommendations.

"The construction project remains a model. It is really important that people should understand that. The construction of T5 was a triumph. The construction phase was Britain at its best," he said.