ABSTRACT
The first major report reviewing the performance of the UK construction industry was produced in 1929 and there have been around thirteen similar reports produced between 1929 and 1994. All were inspired by client concerns about the impact on their commercial performance of the inefficiency and waste in the construction industry, and all contained remarkably similar messages. These client concerns were very effectively summed up in a book entitled Reaching for the Skies written by an architect called Alfred Bossom in 1934. He went to America in the early part of the last century and became closely involved in the design and construction of skyscrapers. This taught him that construction could be treated as an engineering process in which everything is scheduled in advance and all work is carried out to an agreed timetable. The result of using these engineering techniques meant that buildings were able to be erected more quickly than they were in Great Britain, yet cost no more. They yielded larger profits for both the building owner and the contractor and enabled the operatives to be paid from three to five times the wages they received in Great Britain. On his return, Bossom saw the weaknesses in the performance of the British construction industry with unblinkered eyes and became an enthusiastic advocate for radical change.
