CIOB urges clients to lead on quality with new construction guide

A new guide from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is calling on construction clients to take a more active role in shaping safer, higher-quality and more sustainable projects. The Construction Client Guide: Leading Projects in the Built Environment was officially launched in June and has already received endorsement from Mike Reader MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment.

“Getting the client side of a project right is vital to help improve the quality and safety of the built environment,” Reader said at the guide’s launch. “I encourage everyone involved in commissioning and overseeing projects to read CIOB’s client guide and use it as a tool to aid project success.”

Co-authored by both clients and contractors, the free-to-download guide is central to CIOB’s client engagement strategy and emphasises the untapped influence clients hold. It argues that better-informed clients can make decisions that deliver not just short-term cost efficiency, but long-term value, sustainability, and health and safety benefits.

“There has never been a more important time for clients to step up and be equipped to ask the right questions,” Reader added. “Clients must bring in the right people and establish effective controls and governance to make decisions that stand the test of time.”

Structured in the order of a typical construction project, the guide spans early business case development through to asset management and eventual decommissioning. The latest edition includes updates on major legislative changes such as the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Procurement Act 2023, as well as expanded sections on sustainability, risk management and digital information flows—including the use of AI.

Ola Obadara FCIOB, group property director at the City of London and a CIOB Client Champion, described the guide as “eminently readable” and practical: “It ensures that we as clients are aligned with consultants’ and contractors’ processes and by following it, we can deliver safer, more efficient, and innovative construction projects.”

The guide is available to download now from the CIOB website and is intended as a reference tool not only for clients, but also contractors and consultants working in collaboration with them.