FORWARD
The time has come for engineering professionals and institutions to pull together to create a joint ‘buildings engineering industry’ – it’s the only way to effect real reform of the construction sector, argues Terry Wyatt
TOGETHER B
Morrell has highlighted the ‘growing
ack in 1994, in a report to government, Sir Michael Latham described the UK construction industry as being ‘fragmented’,
‘adversarial’ and ‘ineffective’. It was, he suggested, an industry represented by a diverse collection of bodies working with scant collaboration, resulting in great waste of materials and manpower. Another report that was critical of the construction industry, by Sir John Egan, was published in 1998. The Latham report’s findings led to
the Construction Act 1996. Despite the Act being regularly updated since, the industry in the UK remains much as Latham found it. However, fresh impetus for reform has come from Paul Morrell, who was appointed to the new post of chief construction adviser to the government in 2008.
20 CIBSE Journal April 2012
need for a general upskilling of people in all parts of the supply chain to address the design, construction and operation of low carbon, energy efficient buildings’. This presents a colossal challenge to the construction sector as a whole. It surely also requires the different engineering professions and institutions involved in the built environment to look beyond their own boundaries and to seek to create a single ‘buildings engineering industry’. Although improvements have been made
in the relationships between the various professional bodies and groupings in the built environment, they must all open the barriers and pull together. At present the industry’s designers, contractors and manufacturers are a disjointed bunch – as Figure 1 illustrates. When it comes to individual projects, these professionals lack an effective connection to the eventual operation and management of the building’s facilities – a connection that is essential for achieving the successful fulfilment of the project’s purpose. Our sector remains far too confrontational
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