Report calls for construction’s ‘King’s Fund’

Construction’s professional institutes should collaborate to set up the equivalent of the health sector’s King’s Fund – an unbiased, independent authority that would produce research the whole industry could get behind.

The proposal for a joint research institute is one of six key recommendations in Collaboration for Change, a report commissioned by pan-industry discussion group The Edge and written by Paul Morrell, formerly the government’s chief construction adviser.

The proposed institute would engage with universities to decide on research priorities, then help disseminate and implement the results.

“It wouldn’t be a copy of the King’s Fund, but no one institute would have control of it, it would be a third party, independent voice,” explained architect Robin Nicholson, a spokesperson for The Edge. “The universities are really keen on this as well.”

Other recommendations include setting up a review process to look at the arguments for cross-disciplinary degree courses; improved joint action between the institutes on major challenges such as climate change and closing the “performance gap”; and establishing a joint code of ethics that would apply to members of all professional bodies in the industry.

Nicholson, a former chair of the Construction Industry Council, explained that the report had been commissioned following debates around the “performance gap”, where participants had fundamentally questioned whether designers and contractors could call themselves “professional” without taking responsibility for follow-up work.

The report has been informed by a five-strong commission of industry experts, including Tony Burton, senior partner at Gardiner & Theobald and chair of the Construction Industry Council; client Karen Rogers of Heathrow Airports; and Isabel McAllister, director of sustainability at Mace, who has no professional affiliation.

In a series of meetings, this group then sought evidence from representatives of the institutes themselves, including Chris Blythe, chief executive of the CIOB. This process led to 100 recommendations, which have been whittled down to 26 in the final report.

Nicholson explained that the institutes would then be invited to work on implementing the recommendations they wanted to prioritise.

Chris Blythe welcomed the report as a contribution to discussions on how the institutes can work together more effectively.

He said: “The recommendations in the report highlight that change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and consensus, and the professions and other key institutions can lead the way in ensuring that this collaboration is in the public interest.”

But the report also implicitly criticises the Construction Industry Council, the body that currently gives 33 professional institutions and membership bodies in the industry a common voice. 

Nicholson added: “Its chief executive, Graham Watts, would argue that he’s not allowed to do that kind of work, to make strategic, overarching plans. But we’re saying, we think the CIC should be emboldened to take on some of this strategic work.” 

The CIC is due to discuss the report and its recommendations at its AGM later this month. 

Other professional institutes have also welcomed the report. Stephen Matthews, chief executive of CIBSE, said: “At a time when relevance and value is extremely important to the future of professional bodies in the construction sector, the Collaboration for Change report is a welcome contribution to the debate.

“There is a great deal of change underway, especially in the property and construction sectors, and professional bodies must stay relevant to tackle future issues. Significant challenges such as urbanisation, fuel poverty, food production, fossil fuel depletion and the impact of climate change can only be tackled with a determination to embrace change, collaborate more effectively and deliver added value to members, their employers and society at large.”

And Harry Rich, chief executive of the RIBA, said: “The Edge Commission report provides valuable expert insights at a time of significant evolution of the construction professions, driven by societal, technological, economic and demographic change. The RIBA supports the general direction outlined in the report. Indeed, we and other professional institutes are already actively engaged on many of the issues that it identifies and in that context we welcome its publication.

“Building upon the existing work of the construction institutions on sustainability, the RIBA supports the proposal to work to set environmental matters high on the professional portfolio and also to develop a better shared definition of standards of building performance along with a joint commitment to promoting a whole-life approach to project delivery.”