The challenge of how to improve construction’s poor productivity has exercised the best minds for decades. The Latham report of 1994 came first and was followed by Egan in 1998, then Farmer in 2016. The recommendations of these reports, which are mostly relevant today, are broadly similar and include more collaboration between teams, less adversarial relationships, wider adoption of modern methods of construction and digital technologies. 

Technical advances in the past 30 years have made adopting some of these recommendations much easier. The introduction of BIM, which has been widely adopted thanks to the 2016 BIM mandate, has helped drive greater collaboration between teams. But design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) has had a bumpier ride. The future of modular construction looks questionable, with several high-profile failures, whereas pre-manufactured service modules and bathroom pods have become the norm on larger projects.