Strategic Forum for Construction

The Strategic Forum for Construction is a United Kingdom construction industry organisation established in 2001 as the principal point of liaison between UK government and the major construction membership organisations. It also enables different representatives of the UK industry to discuss strategic issues facing construction and to develop joint strategies for industry improvement.

The Strategic Forum was established by ministers in 2001 as a successor to the Construction Industry Board (established following a recommendation in the 1994 Latham Report) and the Construction Task Force, established by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1997. Parts of the construction industry had withdrawn support for the Construction Industry Board, so construction minister Nick Raynsford MP established it initially as a Government-funded body. The Task Force had produced the 1998 Egan Report, and Sir John Egan was appointed the Forum's first chairman.

In 2002, the Construction Industry Council, with backing from other umbrella bodies and Raynsford's successor as construction minister, Brian Wilson MP, changed the Forum to an independent industry group; Peter Rogers of property developer Stanhope plc succeeded Egan as chairman, serving until 2006. Prior to its 2016 reformation, the Forum was chaired by Lord O'Neill; the Forum is now chaired on a rotating basis by representatives from each of its six members.

The Forum has been repeatedly criticised for not speaking on behalf of the entire industry (a role also claimed by the CBI's construction council). In August 2012, the then chief construction adviser Paul Morrell, speaking in a personal capacity, proposed to radically shake up the Forum's governance structure to present a unified industry voice to lobby the government, with Balfour Beatty chief executive Ian Tyler to chair a new advisory council to the Government Construction Board. The forum's role also came under scrutiny following the government's 2013 formation of a Construction Leadership Council.

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