Strategic Forum Reports on Progress in Meeting Egan Targets

The Strategic Forum for Construction has finalised its Review of the targets for industry improvement that were set in the report Accelerating Change, prepared in 2002 under the chairmanship of Sir John Egan.

The Review shows that a number of important targets set out in Accelerating Change have been met - in particular those aimed at bringing more people into the industry both at craft and professional level - and that good progress has been made towards meeting other targets that have an end date beyond 2007. Two of the targets - one relating to the adoption of Design Quality Indicators and the other focused on the Client's Charter - have proved very difficult to measure but the Review confirms that considerable progress has been made towards achieving what was intended.

Commenting on the Review, Chairman of the Strategic Forum, Mike Davies, said:
'It has been a considerable achievement over the last five years to recruit 300,000 qualified people into the industry and to bring about a 50% increase in the number of applications to built environment higher and further education courses. In addition, 80% of those working in the industry now have CSCS cards whilst Design Quality Indicators are being used widely in key sectors of the industry.

'The one disappointment is that the industry has not been able to make more progress on supply chain and project team integration. Whilst most parts of the industry recognise that more integrated working is taking place, and can demonstrate the benefits that arise from this, it has not extended as widely as the Accelerating Change report had intended, or as the industry would like.

'Increasing integrated working remains a priority for the Strategic Forum in the next stage of its work and we have drawn up an Action Plan to highlight what we believe needs to be done, learning from some of the really successful projects which have adopted a more integrated approach. We will be outlining the various steps we intend to take and a new set of targets on 11 June when the Competitiveness Minister, Shriti Vadera and I will be jointly launching with other government ministers the joint Strategy for Sustainable Construction.'

The Strategic Forum also announced that areas where new targets will be set include client leadership, commitment to people, design, sustainability, and health and safety.