The Joint Contracts Tribunal, also known as the JCT, produces standard forms of contract for construction, guidance notes and other standard documentation for use in the construction industry in the United Kingdom. From its establishment in 1931, JCT has expanded the number of contributing organisations. Following recommendations in the 1994 Latham Report, the current operational structure comprises seven members who approve and authorise publications. In 1998 the JCT became a limited company.
The Latham Report, titled Constructing the Team, was an influential report written by Sir Michael Latham, published in July 1994. Latham was commissioned by the United Kingdom government and industry organisations to review procurement and contractual arrangements in the UK construction industry, aiming to tackle controversial issues facing the industry during a period of lapse in growth as a whole.
Sir Michael Anthony Latham DL HonFREng was a British Conservative Member of Parliament.
The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former UK government national laboratory that was privatised in 1997. BRE provides research, advice, training, testing, certification and standards for both public and private sector organisations in the UK and abroad. It has its headquarters in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, with regional sites in Glasgow, Swansea, the US, India, the Middle East and China.
Avanti was established by the UK Department of Trade and Industry in 2002 to formulate an approach to collaborative working in order to enable construction project partners to work together effectively. The project was promoted by the Department of Trade and Industry with the support of most of the largest UK firms in the construction industry. Avanti also involved the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), Loughborough University and Co-Construct, a network of five construction research and information organizations.
Construction law is a branch of law that deals with matters relating to building construction, engineering, and related fields. It is in essence an amalgam of contract law, commercial law, planning law, employment law and tort. Construction law covers a wide range of legal issues including contract, negligence, bonds and bonding, guarantees and sureties, liens and other security interests, tendering, construction claims, and related consultancy contracts. Construction law affects many participants in the construction industry, including financial institutions, surveyors, quantity surveyors, architects, carpenters, engineers, construction workers, and planners.
David Michael Gann CBE is a British academic administrator and civil engineer. He is Vice-President (Innovation) at Imperial College London and a member of the College's Executive Board. His academic research spans strategy, management science and systems engineering.
The Egan Report, titled Rethinking Construction, was an influential report on the UK construction industry produced by an industry task force chaired by Sir John Egan, published in November 1998. Together with the Latham Report, Constructing the Team, produced four years earlier, it did much to drive efficiency improvements in UK construction industry practice during the early years of the 21st century.
The Strategic Forum for Construction is a United Kingdom construction industry organisation established in 2001 as the principal point of liaison between UK government and the major construction membership organisations. It also enables different representatives of the UK industry to discuss strategic issues facing construction and to develop joint strategies for industry improvement.
Construction collaboration technology refers to software applications used to enable effective sharing of project-related information between geographically dispersed members of a construction project team, often through use of a web-based software as a service platform.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, formerly the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and the Cambridge Programme for Industry, is part of the School of Technology within the University of Cambridge.
Retainage is a portion of the agreed upon contract price deliberately withheld until the work is substantially complete to assure that contractor or subcontractor will satisfy its obligations and complete a construction project. A retention is money withheld by one party in a contract to act as security against incomplete or defective works. They have their origin in the British construction industry Railway Mania of the 1840s but are now common across the industry, featuring in the majority of construction contracts. A typical retention rate is 5% of which half is released at completion and half at the end of the defects liability period. There has been criticism of the practice for leading to uncertainty on payment dates, increasing tensions between parties and putting monies at risk in cases of insolvency. There have been several proposals to replace the practice with alternative systems.
Paul Dring Morrell is an English chartered quantity surveyor. Formerly senior partner of Davis Langdon, he was, from November 2009 to November 2012, the UK Government's first Chief Construction Adviser.
Richard Gilbert Saxon CBE is an English architect. He was chairman of Building Design Partnership (BDP), chairman of BE, a vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2002-2008), Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects (2005-2006), president of the British Council for Offices (1995-1996) and Chairman of the Joint Contracts Tribunal. He was awarded CBE in 2001 for services to British architecture and construction.
Andrew William Wolstenholme is an English civil engineer, and group technical director of Laing O'Rourke.
Construction 2025 is a British government report issued in July 2013 outlining its industrial strategy for the sector until 2025. Key aims were to reduce programme lengths and costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the trade gap. The policy saw the establishment of the Construction Leadership Council to drive change in the industry.
Never Waste a Good Crisis, also known as the Wolstenholme Report, is a 2009 report written by Andrew Wolstenholme and commissioned by Constructing Excellence. Wolstenholme analysed the British construction industry's performance against the objectives set out in the 1998 Egan Report. His assessment was pessimistic, noting a failure to meet targets in almost all areas bar profitability. Wolstenholme outlined several problems prevalent in the industry and measures that might be taken to resolve them, calling on the industry to use the Great Recession as an opportunity to change its performance.
Transforming Infrastructure Performance is a British government report on the UK construction industry. Issued by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority in December 2017, its aim is to improve productivity in the sector and make savings of £15 billion per year. It proposes to do this by increasing innovations like off-site construction and new digital technology, improving government procurement procedures, and improving integration and collaboration. It is seen as a welcome initiative by the industry, and early implementation of its aims has been incorporated into the water industry's 2019 price review.
The Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) brings together UK economic infrastructure clients in partnership with government and industry. Its key purpose is to lead the acceleration of the improvement and alignment in the delivery and development of UK infrastructure for the benefit of the economy, society and the environment. The ICG contributes to a people-focused, system-based view of infrastructure by: benchmarking, sharing and adopting best practice in the development and delivery of infrastructure programmes and projects, and providing a single route to and from government and industry on behalf of economic infrastructure clients.
Early contractor involvement (ECI) is a type of construction contract where the principal contractor is engaged at an early stage in a project to offer input into the design phase. It is in contrast to the design–bid–build model where the contractor is only brought onboard at the end of the design phase. The model allows the contractor to have an input in the design of the scheme and suggest value engineering changes. Studies have shown that savings of around 10% in construction phase time and 7% in cost are achievable through the use of ECI. The ECI model has become increasingly popular in the United Kingdom since the early 2000s and is also used in Australia and New Zealand.
