The new Construction Leadership Council, which will be co-chaired by secretary of state Vince Cable and David Higgins of Network Rail, has been hailed as the first time in 20 years that construction and government have combined forces to deliver change in the industry.
The council is also seen as potentially a more effective change agent than the Strategic Forum for Construction, and relatively independent from traditional industry allegiances: only some of the industry members are listed as representing wider industry affiliations such as the Construction Industry Council, with five apparently appointed in an individual capacity.
The CIOB and other professional institutions are represented via Jack Pringle, chairman of the Construction Industry Council.
“It’s easy to produce good work but unless it’s picked up by the industry as providing commercial benefit on a significant scale, it doesn’t see the light of day. But with the new council, you’ve got a load of people prepared to put their head on the block and be accountable for uptake.”
Mark Wakeford, managing director of contractor Stepnell and Council member
Paul Bogle, policy manager at the National Federation of Builders, welcomed the change in emphasis. “It makes for a more rounded council, you will get people being a bit more open and not so much thinking about their allegiances to a particular organisation. They’ll simply be bringing their expertise to the table which should allow for healthy debate and better ability to get things done.”
But Graham Watts of CIC pointed out that the council could have limited ability to mandate new measures across the industry. “Compared to the aeronautical sector or other industrial councils, there you can be sure that you have all the major employers around the table. The construction industry isn’t like that – Paul Sheffield [chief executive of Kier] can’t represent the UKCG or mandate other companies to do something. It’s a weakness [in construction] but not one that’s impossible to overcome, as we’ve seen with BIM and improvements to health and safety.”
Council member Mark Wakeford, managing director of Rugby-based contractor Stepnell, represents the Construction Alliance, a grouping of the NFB, FMB, Scottish Building Federation and CECA, and is also a member of the Strategic Forum.
Explaining the role of the Council, he told CM: “The council is there to oversee and help deliver the strategy, but the exact modus operandi has yet to be worked out. As I’m representing the Alliance, my task as a leader will be to persuade or cajole the Alliance members to promote aspects of the strategy to members and to change behaviours.
“It will be meeting three times a year, with intermediate meetings of a smaller executive group – there will be a lot of work going on in the background.
“Having been on the Strategic Forum for a number of years, I know it’s easy to produce good work but unless it’s picked up by the industry as providing commercial benefit on a significant scale, it doesn’t see the light of day. But with the new council, you’ve got a load of people prepared to put their head on the block and be accountable for uptake.
“To deliver the aspirations will require work in all sorts of areas, so the Council is drafted from a wide base of industry representation. We will pull together the experience of the organisations we represent, starting with the Action Plan. Some of the actions aren’t well defined yet, the owners of these actions will have to identify the level and scope of the work.
“It will need a concerted effort over the 12 years, and particularly in the first 3 to 4, if it’s going to deliver the necessary step change. And we are aware that the Council will have to operate in more of a delivery mode than the Strategic Forum managed to achieve, although the Forum did a huge amount of work in working towards the Industrial Strategy.”
