Announcing the move at last week’s DBF conference, chairman John Carpenter said firms wishing to register would have to meet standards similar to those introduced for contractors in May. Registered designers and manufacturers will be preferred suppliers to DBF members.
The DBF’s contractors scheme involves a £10 000 registration fee as well as visits to sites, references and interviews. So far, only two contractors have completed the documentation; another 10 are undergoing registration. Carpenter said DBF clients view registered firms more favourably because their standards have been checked so thoroughly.
Slough Estates construction manager Bernard Rimmer, the designer of the registration scheme, said the list for clients, designers and manufacturers would be introduced next spring.
Registration will be less expensive for designers than other groups. Rimmer said: “No one would expect architects to pay £10 000 to register.”
He added that a figure was yet to be decided on.
The conference was addressed by defence minister Peter Kilfoyle, who is responsible for prime contracting, the Ministry of Defence’s procurement initiative that puts a contractor at the head of the construction team.
Kilfoyle said prime contracting was achieving good results in its two pilot schemes. He said the pilot to build an army training centre at Wattisham, near Ipswich, had seen a “30-100% improvement in productivity in the blockwork and a three-fold increase in the profits of specialist suppliers”.
He added: “There have been reductions of up to 60% in the costs of some key substructure elements. The team [led by Laing and architect The Charter Partnership] is forecasting an 18-25% reduction in construction time.”
