New CIC chairman will be link to government

Why did you step down from government?

The offers that the prime minister put to me in May 2005 did not give me a feeling that I could use my time to the best in government. I did not want to do it just for the sake of it.

I feel I am playing a constructive role on the back benches in relation to the construction industry and also the related fields of housing and planning.

What was your favourite duty as construction minister?

I took particular pleasure in the Egan and Latham report on Rethinking Construction and encouraging better integrated, more collective approach to construction.

What would you give construction out of 10 for its approach to sustainability?

At its best it’s 10 out of 10. At its best it’s world class, both in terms of development of new products and materials and in building and designing to a very high standard. But the industry has a very long tail. At its less admirable end there are still dreadfully poor working practices that involve profligate waste of materials and buildings that are woefully deficient.

If you could change one thing in your two years at CIC, what would it be?

To try once and for all to rid us of the old confrontational spirit that leads people into court rather than to work efficiently as partners together. That approach is

still very much in evidence. There is a long way further to go to ensure that partnering is the norm. That would achieve a big advance in quality and in value if people worked constructively together.