O'Rourke pleads for post-Wembley culture shift...

Leading contractor Ray O'Rourke called for a major overhaul of procurement in the sector to overcome "disaster" projects such as Wembley stadium.

In a rare public appearance last week the chairman of the UK's biggest private contractor lambasted the current performance of the industry for its waste and inefficient tendering culture.

Speaking at the British Council for Offices annual conference in Dublin last Friday, O'Rourke said the industry needed to focus on procurement. "We waste probably £25bn in the UK and Ireland. We should be looking at improving our procurement. Adversarial contracting is unproductive. You see the results time and time again. There is the port tunnel over here in Dublin. Wembley is a fiasco, a disaster." He said there needs to be a huge post-Wembley culture shift in the industry: "There has to be a starting point, to take Wembley and say we are never going to let that happen again."

O'Rourke said the Terminal 5 project was the "most exciting project I have ever worked on" as the client was "intelligent enough to take on the risk".

Adversarial contracting is unproductive. You see the results time and time again

Ray O’Rourke

He compared T5 to another airport job his £2.1bn-turnover firm had worked on in Dubai. "There (Dubai) it's a blame culture and adversarial. We were not allowed to value engineer the job." O'Rourke said this led to 11,000 workers being required on the site at its busiest point, compared to just 2,500 at the peak of the Terminal 5 scheme. "It's usually down to inadequate cost planning and understanding of out-turn cost."

O'Rourke said his firm was planning a major efficiency drive, partly through using off-site fabrication. "In the next five years we will reduce the number of people on site by 60%, which will allow us to grow at our predicted rates. The industry will have to design differently work collaboratively with deliverer of projects to make projects more predictable on safety, quality, time and cost."

O'Rourke's criticisms of the industry were backed by Stanhope director Peter Rogers, who said both the government and QSs were to blame. "Wembley is perceived as a success (for the government) as the contractors are taking a caning and there is no risk to the public purse. That's a fundamental error. We are still accepting lowest cost bids. There are many QSs here and the profession is still guilty of that."

We are starting projects too soon, without sufficient design

Francis Ives, chairman, Cyril Sweett

The attack drew defence of the QS profession at the BCO seminar into resource issues in the construction industry. Cyril Sweett chairman Francis Ives said there were many problems caused by procurement but that "it was not the QS who drives that". "He or she may be able to advise, but clients require projects to be tendered. That's their choice. The industry doesn't refuse to tender."

Ives pointed to a different fundamental problem in the sector. "Whatever form of contract and whatever the state of procurement, we are starting projects too soon, without sufficient design. We are doing clients no favours by promising to design as we build. It stores up problems."