Latham Report

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.

The Latham Report was not the first report to identify systemic failings in the UK construction industry; previous reports dating back to the 1960s had identified similar issues and made similar recommendations. However, this report did gain industry and government support.

Latham identified industry inefficiencies, condemning existing industry practices as 'adversarial', 'ineffective', 'fragmented', 'incapable of delivering for its clients' and 'lacking respect for its employees'.

He urged reform and advocated partnering and collaboration by construction companies. A key concept was that through teamwork the construction industry could delight its customers. Latham made 53 recommendations to change industry practices, to increase efficiency and to replace the bureaucratic, wasteful, adversarial atmosphere prevalent in most construction projects with one characterised by openness, co-operation, trust, honesty, commitment and mutual understanding among team members. For example:

The Report spawned a raft of initiatives including the establishment of the Construction Industry Board to oversee reform. At the request of the Construction Clients' Forum (formed following Latham's recommendation), the CIB published a further report, Partnering in the Team in 1996. In parallel, the industry reform group, the Reading Construction Forum, published Trusting the Team: the Best Practice Guide to Partnering in Construction in 1995 (for which Latham wrote the foreword).

Subsequent initiatives included the 1998 Egan Report Re-thinking construction, and the establishment of industry change organisations including the Design Build Foundation (1997) Construction Best Practice Programme, the IT Construction Best Practice Programme, Movement for Innovation and Constructing Excellence. The Latham and Egan Reports' focus on collaboration was also referenced by Chief Construction Adviser Paul Morrell in the UK government construction strategy in 2011.

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