The head of Constructing Excellence has said he is disappointed by the industry’s progress towards integrated project teams and supply chains.

These teams, in which staff from different firms on a project come together to form a single “virtual company”, was an integral requirement of Sir John Egan’s 1998 reform recommendations.

In Accelerating Change, his 2002 follow-up report, Egan said 20% of projects should be undertaken by integrated teams by the end of 2004, rising to 50% by the end of 2007.

Constructing Excellence’s integration task group report shows that integrated teams were used on 13% of projects in 2004, rising to 20% in 2007.

Don Ward, the body’s chief executive, said: “What the figures show is that there is a significant amount of partnering between clients and main contractors, but it is failing to work its way down the chain to subcontractors.”

The report reveals that more than 75% of clients involved in integrated projects reported time and cost savings.