Raynsford, speaking on Monday at the Movement for Innovation conference, Rethinking Construction: Rising to the Challenge Together, in Birmingham, called for a new "clients' charter" and for the industry to treat its employees better.
He called for the industry to develop a more effective representative body than the Construction Industry Board. He also wanted the Movement for Innovation – set up with government cash in the wake of the Egan report, Rethinking Construction – to become self-financing and fully industry-owned.
The construction minister delivered an address to the 1000 delegates on behalf of deputy prime minister John Prescott. Raynsford said his boss was introducing the Railways Bill to parliament.
But Prescott had prepared a video-taped message. In it, he said: "As you know, I have made some criticism of the construction industry in the past, but I have never been in doubt that it is vital to the modernisation of Britain.
"Since Rethinking Construction was published, I have been impressed by your willingness to share knowledge. This is a significant change for an industry that has always been reluctant to share its innovation and best practice," he said, to muted applause.
Prescott also called for a clients' charter, a new idea that would see clients drawing up ways to measure industry performance and so help to raise standards.
Raynsford said he wanted to see clients representing at least half the turnover of the industry signing up to this charter by summer 2000. He also said that although he had generally been pleased with implementation of the Egan report, some aspects had disappointed him.
He said to architects:"Good design is an integral part of Rethinking Construction and it saddens me to hear the defensiveness of some in the design community. Why be scared, defensive or timid? Why not join the team, work with contractors, specialists or others?" An RIBA representative then said that the institution is now taking steps to embrace Rethinking Construction.
Raynsford also said that Prescott and Local Government Association chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham last week wrote to councils asking them to embrace Egan by introducing demonstration projects.
Using a phrase coined by Building in its recent Egan-themed issue (9 July), Raynsford said that, like many other areas of the initiative, "the race is on" to improve respect for people in the industry.
He used statistics to illustrate construction's poor record in terms of equal opportunities and employment of ethnic minorities. Only 4% of RICS members and 2% of the Chartered Institute of Building are women, for example.
At the same time, applications to universities offering construction-related courses are falling, putting the industry's competitiveness under threat. "This is not just high-minded aspiration – it's a business reality," Raynsford said.
He urged firms to be innovative in improving health, safety, site facilities and training, and called for demonstration projects showing respect for people.
UCATT general secretary George Brumwell said that construction's record on working conditions was a disgrace, with some sites resembling "piggeries".
And Christiani & Nielsen managing director Alan Crane said that he was sick to the back teeth of hosting careers evenings where, because of construction's poor image, youngsters were more interested in a financial services career than in the industry.
