Deputy prime minister john prescott launched a ￡3bn challenge to housebuilders earlier this year to provide 50,000 extra homes for his regeneration schemes at a cost of £60,000 each. Meanwhile, a challenge to government, to save a mere ￡2.6bn a year wasted by poor management of public sector construction projects, came from the National Audit Office report, Improving Public Services Through Better Construction. The NAO's challenge is better news for the industry, because it does not involve the usual downward-only risk transfer, screwing down margins yet another notch.
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