Contracting to collaborate and drive industry change

The role of forms on contract have played over the last 30 years in moving the construction sector from an adversarial one to a collaborative one is explored in the latest episode.

New Engineering Contracts (NEC) Users’ Group Chair John Welch, who is also currently deputy director for construction at Crown Commercial Service, and Andrew McNaughton who has recently joined Aczel as infrastructure lead join NCE editor Claire Smith and features editor Nadine Buddoo to talk about the impact NEC has had on the industry.

John and Andrew discuss the drivers for the NEC contracts to be used on smaller projects now, as well as major schemes, and look at why the system is gaining ground internationally too. Both guests point to NEC’s basis as a simple form of contract that uses plain English as the main reason for widening adoption. They also discuss how evolution of the contracts has set out the principles for collaboration but say that it is really up to the project partners to foster those principles and put them into action.

Before the interview, Claire chats with NCE’s head of content and engagement Rob Horgan and reporter Catherine Kennedy about what is likely to come out the Spending Review last today (27 October) and what the industry hopes will come out of COP26 in Glasgow. The news team also talk about the stories that have caught the interest of readers in the last month from National Highways’ historic rail bridge infilling to the fifth anniversary of construction work starting at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

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