It has happened. The merger first announced last year became official when Constructing Excellence, the DTI-backed industry reform agency, joined forces with Be in April.

Constructing Excellence, itself a product of merged programmes spawned by the Egan report like Construction Best Practice and the Housing Forum, faced shrinking funding from the DTI: £3m this year, £1m next year.

The new organisation, called Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment (CEBE), will survive on membership dues, consultancy fees and, it is hoped, government contracts.

Dennis Lenard, the chief executive of Constructing Excellence, becomes chief executive of CEBE and Don Ward, Be chief executive, becomes his deputy.

Be (short for Collaborating in the Built Environment), was a self-funding membership organisation with approximately 200 members. It will carry on with its research activity.

Ward said that CEBE would try and attract twice as many members in the coming year, and would target both public and private clients.

Source

Construction Manager