The Construction Clients Group plans to charge clients for its procurement advice within the next five years
Newly appointed chairman Graham Farrant said that in the long term his plan was to charge for a one-stop shop service providing client advice for one-off construction clients.

In an interview with Building, Farrant said the CCG had written a Charter that sets out the responsibilities of clients. He said that other advisory services would be created for clients.

He said: "We have a big-picture plan of trying to charge for a quality service within five years." He said that he would be lobbying the DTI for funding but he expected it would be on a project-by-project basis.

Farrant, who is also chief executive of Barking and Dagenham council, said that he would also be targeting public-sector construction clients.

He said: "I want to make sure that local authorities get the best client advice and begin to realise that they can save money by adopting different partnering approaches to the procurement of construction."

He added that he would target new local government procurement centres of excellence, which are due to be launched by the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister in the next few weeks. He said that with the help of Chris Morley, who has been seconded from the British Property Federation to resurrect the industry's client body, they would be able to recruit more clients to the CCG. Morley has already secured the support of the DTI, OGC and Local Government Association for the CCG.