Strategic Forum chairman Peter Rogers has set out a six-point plan to improve the UK construction industry.
The points are as follows:
  • The number of projects to be completed by integrated project teams is to be increased from 20% to 50% by 2007.

  • The number of employers using the clients' Charter is to be increased from 20% to 50% by the same date.

  • The industry is to recruit and retain 300,000 qualified people by 2006.

  • To achieve a 50% increase in applications to higher and further education courses by 2007.

  • To have a fully trained qualified and competent workforce on all projects by 2010.

  • To have at least 500 live projects employing design quality indicators by the end of 2004. By the end of 2007, 60% of publicly funded and PFI projects worth more than 拢1m are to use DQIs.

Rogers said that the forum's crucial task was to establish the framework to achieve cultural change, but that this had taken longer than anticipated.

He said: "We are generally on course to deliver these ambitious targets but, perhaps more importantly, we have clear commitment from forum members and a wider circle of industry organisations within the forum's implementation group to drive these targets forward."

The strategic forum was formed in 2001 to replace the Construction Industry Board. Last year, plans were announced to turn it into a "super lobby" for the construction industry, after which little more was heard.

We are on course to deliver these ambitious targets and drive them forward

Peter Rogers, chairman, strategic forum