CECA members were recently joined at an online roundtable by the Centre for Construction Best Practice (CCBP) to discuss their research into the benefits of early contractor involvement (ECI) in project delivery. Ben Goodwin, CECA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, looks at the key takeaways in this short blog.
CCBP’s Constructing Certainty research examined how the timing of contractor appointment affected outcomes across 412 UK public-sector projects delivered by 55 contractors.
The research primarily considered the social and commercial sectors of the built environment, but its key findings and recommendations are also relevant to economic infrastructure.
The research found overwhelmingly that the later contractors are engaged in project delivery, the more likely it is that cost and programme overruns will occur.
CCBP makes three central recommendations as part of their research conclusions:
- Mandate contracted early involvement on public-sector capital projects above £5m
- Strengthen public-sector capability and confidence in ECI
- Introduce mandatory ‘value checks’ so contracts are not awarded on lowest price alone.
These recommendations have been backed by Mike Reader MP, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure and the CCBP continues to advocate for their adoption. They were presented and subsequently well received at the beginning of the roundtable.
The discussion that followed focused on a range of different issues, including reinforcement that the recommendations had a great deal of practical relevance to economic infrastructure networks and the fact that many of the 412 projects that were studied did have civils contracts associated with them in any case.
The discussion also considered how compliance needs to be strengthened with the Construction Playbook’s position on ECI and the case for extending its applicability beyond central government procurement.
There was also some discussion on how ECI can more effectively drive the environmental sustainability of infrastructure projects by properly embedding approaches and standards like PAS 2080 across delivery cycles.
CECA’s next online policy session will be with the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) to workshop the next iteration of the Infrastructure Pipeline. This will be taking place on 9 December. Get in touch at enquiries@ceca.co.uk if you would like to know more.
CCBP’s Constructing Certainty report can be found here.