Slimmed-down Strategic Forum to relaunch with industry support
The government-backed Strategic Forum is to close in June but will be reborn with industry support in September. The body was set up in May 2001.

The Department for Trade and Industry has offered support to get the new Strategic Forum off the ground, but is keen for the industry to fund the body.

Construction minister Brian Wilson met with the Construction Industry Umbrella Body (CUB) last month and accepted its proposals for taking over the forum and running it with industry resources.

The forum has been criticised of being unwieldy. Membership stands at 35 at present, but will be reduced before September. An insider described meetings as excruciating because of the numbers.

Graham Watts, chairman of CUB and chief executive of the Construction Industry Council, said the number of bodies in the forum was ridiculous. "Producing the Accelerating Change report [launched in April] was a bit tortuous because of all the bodies involved. And the DTI had to consult with a wide range of people."

But forum member Rudi Klein, chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group, said the body had achieved a lot. "It has done more in the last eight months than the Construction Industry Board did in six years. Unlike the CIB, it hasn't become a talking shop that reduces decisions to the lowest common denominator."

Source

Construction Manager