Author of Rethinking Construction says that housebuilders did not try to improve their businesses during the 'nice decade'
Sir John Egan has slammed housebuilders for not implementing the recommendations in his Rethinking Construction report.
Speaking at a reception at the House of Commons to mark 10 years since the publication of his report, Egan said he would rate the construction industry鈥檚 performance since as 鈥渇our out of 10鈥�.
Egan particularly criticised housebuilders for failing to follow the guidelines laid down in his report.
He said: 鈥淸Housebuilders] have made no cost improvements at all. Absolutely nothing. Also, their productivity processes actually generated much less than half of the demonstration projects.鈥�
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think they were trying. In this 鈥榥ice decade鈥�, as the Bank of England called it, they really didn鈥檛 try. And now they鈥檝e got their comeuppance. It鈥檚 very, very sad.鈥�
Egan said that housebuilders could have made progress with simple productivity and design improvements and more off-site building. 鈥渢he houses could be costing a great deal less than they do, and there would still be a market.鈥�
Egan also claimed responsibility for John Prescott鈥檚 plans to build 拢60,000 homes last year, but he said he wanted the target to be 拢50,000 and for the homes to be three-bed.
Egan went on to say that the government was partly to blame for 鈥渘ot trying鈥� to be a good client in its construction projects.
Summing up the lasting impact of the report, Egan said: 鈥淲e have to say we鈥檝e got pretty patchy results. And certainly nowhere near the improvement we could have achieved, or that I expected to achieve.鈥�
