The road to riches

He describes "the famous sucking of the teeth," as "the greatest attribute of the entire building industry". He admits to being "deeply depressed by an industry where you seem to appoint the claims manager before you appoint the project director", and says that "if you let architects run the world, the world would be an appalling place". OK. Norris is not construction's greatest fan, but he is passionate about integrated transport and needs construction managers on his side.

Misquoted
It may come as a surprise that the man who famously said he preferred private transport because "you don't have to put up with dreadful human beings sitting alongside you" is a missionary for the cause of integrated transport. Norris claims he was misquoted and that he was actually identifying the excuses people use for staying in their cars.

As Tory transport minister, Norris gained credit for driving the Jubilee Line Extension forward, and he is still a transport enthusiast, despite having vacated his ministry long ago. This is the reason he was chosen to be president of Interchange, an exhibition to further the cause of integrated transport.

With an estimated £180bn to be spent on integrated transport over the next 10 years, the construction industry could do worse than listen to a man of his experience.

Norris has strong views on how the construction industry must change to meet the demands of integrated transport. One essential skill Norris says construction has lacked in the past and needs to develop is that of imagining how a building, or transport system, will be used once the workers leave site. "One of the things the construction industry was very bad at was putting itself in the position of the user," says Norris. "For example, how can you build buildings in the 21st century that don't have access for the disabled? It happens all the time and is quite appalling." Despite taking a dim view of construction's past, the refreshingly down-to-earth Norris says the industry is up to the challenge of building an integrated transport network. "I've certainly seen a change in the attitude the construction industry takes to these planning issues in the last 10 years. In the past it was very much an attitude of 'turn up on site and get on with it'. Now there is a much greater sense it is not a bad idea to understand exactly what a project entails and how it relates to the existing infrastructure." Norris cites the redevelopment of Paddington station in London as a fine example of integrated transport. "There has been a terrific improvement at Paddington. Not only are the facilities much better and it is warmer when waiting on the railway station, but as you go down to the underground you now have a nice wide area to walk round in. It's all about making the journey more pleasant for people, to encourage them away from their cars."

Safety concerns
The other key issues you need to get to grips with if you want to build integrated transport that impresses clients are environmental concerns and safety, says Norris. "One of the things we want to try and do is to inspire people to think about how the environment can also be improved or protected in the process of construction," he says. "These are real concerns. They are not just for the brown rice and open-toed sandal brigade; it's people who wear suits and ties who are just as concerned about those sorts of issues. More and more clients, such as local authorities, are saying 'we want to see a schedule of materials', for example."

Fatalities
While acknowledging the industry's poor safety record of late, Norris is confident that with the right approach even the most audacious projects can pass without incident. "When you look at where the best practices are employed on site, where every effort is made to design out danger, and where employees have been convinced through proper training of the need to take the appropriate protection, the most ambitious and breathtaking designs can be completed safely. The Jubilee Line Extension, for example, was built without a single fatality. All too often where you see fatalities it is because you are looking at sloppy practice." Norris' opinion of the industry's past may in part be due to his own bad experiences when having an extension built on his house two years ago. And it may also be the reason why he says the government should push the Quality Mark anti-cowboy builder scheme. "The certification of standards is hugely to the public's benefit. I understand all the stuff my Conservative colleagues say about free markets and not constraining the employment market, but cowboy builders are the enemy of the less well off, the poor, the elderly, of those who get conned too easily into signing themselves up to massive bills that are incompetently delivered and badly managed. I don't have any problems with introducing theses schemes, and the government should be prepared to push the issue." For Norris, changing VAT is not the way to outlaw cowboys. "Rather than lower the VAT threshold, which is missing the point, or raise it, which is equally dangerous, for me it's about the competency of the builder. In most other countries in Europe, you'd have to have a license to trade as a builder. And that's what I want. I don't give a damn whether you pay VAT or not." So even though he has suffered "incompetence and appalling nonsense from small builders", Norris continues to believe that the construction industry can rise to the challenge of realising his dream of a seamless and integrated transport infrastructure - if only managers can imagine what using it would be like.