A new study published by the RICS Foundation shows that while professionals in the construction industry purport to agree with the aspirations of the Latham Report they are as adversarial as ever when it comes to contracts.

The report is called Construction contract policy: do we mean what we say? and was compiled by Will Hughes, from the University of Reading, and Yasuyoshi Maeda, from Penta Ocean Construction in Japan.

They wrote the report after questioning practitioners in detail about their support for the central themes of the Latham Report that are supposed to transform the relationships between clients and contractors.

Cynicism borne of experience abounds. Basically, nobody believes relationships based on fairness, mutual trust and teamwork are feasible because they are all frightened of each other failing to live up to their obligations unless they faced penalties for not doing so.