Phillips Report on Building
The Working Party Report to the Minister of Works: The Phillips Report on Building, was published by HMSO in 1950.
It was the first post war report on construction and set out to assess:
- The organisation and efficiency of building operations, including those specialist and subcontracting trades.
- The position of the professions.
- The arrangements for financing operations.
- The types of contract in general use.
It was written within the context of lower productivity, higher material costs, optimistic reconstruction programmes, an acceleration of electrification, full employment and high wages. During the war, the construction industry lost 230,000 operatives.
Phillips suggest that more certainty should be achievable within the construction industry. He called for greater advance knowledge, better management and more complete preplanning with full working drawings and bills of quantities and the abolition of variations clauses.
He proposed that there should be more collaboration, co-ordination and flexibility across the industry, and suggested pay incentive schemes for workers to tackle the fall in productivity. He suggested some of the problems in the industry could be tackled by a standard contract for public procurement and called for an end to the proliferation of nominated subcontractors.
It was followed in 1962 by The Ministry of Works' 'Survey of Problems before the Construction Industries', commonly known as the Emmerson Report, which again found a lack of cohesion between the parties to construction contracts and proposed the standardisation of contracts and subcontracts.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
Cyber Security in the Built Environment
Protecting projects, data, and digital assets: A CIOB Academy TIS.
Managing competence in the built environment
ITFG publishes new industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles.
The UK's campaign to reduce noise pollution: Mythbusting, articles and topic guides.
Setting Expectations on Competence Management
Industry Competence Committee.
New Scottish and Welsh governments
CIOB stresses importance of construction after new parliament elections.
The sad story of Derby Hippodrome
An historic building left to decay.
ECA, JIB and JTL back Fabian Society call to invest in skills for a stronger built environment workforce.
Women's Contributions to the Built Environment.
Calls for the delayed Circular Economy Strategy
Over 50 leading businesses, trade associations and professional bodies, including CIAT, and UKGBC sign open letter.
The future workforce: culture change and skill
Under the spotlight at UK Construction Week London.
A landmark moment for postmodern heritage.
A safe energy transition – ECA launches a new Charter
Practical policy actions to speed up low carbon adoption while maintaining installation safety and competency.
Frank Duffy: Researcher and Practitioner
Reflections on achievements and relevance to the wider research and practice communities.
The 2026 Compliance Landscape: Fire doors
Why 'Business as Usual' is a Liability.
Cutting construction carbon footprint by caring for soil
Is construction neglecting one of the planet’s most powerful carbon stores and one of our greatest natural climate allies.
ARCHITECTURE: How's it progressing?
Archiblogger posing questions of a historical and contextual nature.