Lessons from the late Sir Michael Latham and Sir John Armitt
I have just read the Sunday Times article on HS2, title “The Money Train” and published on Sunday 6th July. The surprise for me and probably for many of you, is how long it has taken for this story to reach mainstream media. In a week’s time Radio 4 will begin a series on the story of HS2. For those of us who have seen the HS2 failure, whether at a distance or close hand, the script will be the same. The primary reasons for failure are centred on poor Governance and poor Client skills. There will be some additional ingredients of uninformed political interference together with, a lack of accountability, an absence of checks and balances. This is not new news and there are no new lessons. In fact, Sir Michael Latham wrote to both the Government and to Industry in July 1994 and I quote some prophetic words “The time to choose has arrived. The construction process cannot wait 30 years for another Banwell or 50 years for another Simon.”
In fact the construction industry waited almost 31years for the Stewart Review (June 2025) into the Governance failures of HS2. In the late Sir Michael’s words there was more than a hint that Governments, of whatever colour, do not learn. I was fortunate to work with Sir Michael and his major report emphasised the need for improving Client skills in public sector projects such that Government organisations procuring Infrastructure would be seen as “exemplars of good practice”. Latham also advised fairer risk allocation, greater transparency, collaborative working and fast dispute resolution via 28-day Adjudications, to avoid lengthy delays and high costs waiting on Court or Arbitration.
Sir John Armitt is an exemplar Client using the Latham tests. Last November Sir John was the keynote speaker for the first CAC annual conference. Sir John spoke about the importance of the Client to provide the project with Leadership, Governance, Accountability and Strategy. In other words, the Client sets the tone. Sir John Armitt set the bar high in his role as Client for the London Olympics. There was clearly huge agreement between Sir John and the late Sir Michael on how to achieve successful project delivery. In simple terms the London Olympics adopted Latham and was successful however HS2 has not adopted Latham so far and has failed. There are good signs that the reset of HS2 under the new CEO, Mark Wild, will now adopt many Latham principles.
Meanwhile it is clear we do not need another Industry report, we can take the Latham report to our Clients unamended.
Going forward our challenge as senior industry representatives is to help the world of construction be more predictable, resilient, efficient and more effective. Our skill sets and experience need to move into, or seep into, Clients in the public sector in particular.
I was recently asked about subcontractor selection, and I looked up Latham who wrote:
Recommendation 18 “A joint Code of Practice for the Selection of Subcontractors should be drawn up which should include commitments to short tender lists, fair tendering procedures and teamwork on site (Chapter 6, paragraph 6.41).”
I could not improve on Latham’s recommendation! Indeed, one of our key CAC themes is “by sharing knowledge, promoting best practices, and supporting early resolution methods, we're making the industry more resilient, efficient, and productive”. We face legitimate scrutiny by the media, but we should take comfort that as a Coalition we are founded on the Latham principles which have a proven track record of success.
Richard Bayfield, Chair | 
