Work by experts at the Centre for Construction Law and Dispute Resolution in The Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London has led to the first multi-party contract of its kind in the field of construction. The FAC-1 Framework Alliance Contract helps to improve relations within the industry and ultimately leads to faster speed and better quality of build.

Major construction and engineering projects the world over face the challenge of bringing multiple consultants, contractors and specialists together to integrate their work, services and supplies. Each stakeholder brings with them their own viewpoint, policies and procedures to manage their involvement within a construction project, with the risk of clashes and misunderstandings that lead to disputes.

There are great opportunities not only to reduce disputes but also to improve economic and social value through new contract relationships that integrate team members and that embed learning from one project to another. In response to these challenges, construction and legal experts in the Centre at King’s consulted with over 120 organisations and developed the FAC-1 Framework Alliance Contract.

Launched in June 2016 by the Association Consultant Architects (ACA), FAC-1 has transformed the way in which multi-party relationships are agreed and managed, and has already been adopted on public and private sector procurements worth a total of over £9.5 billion. In the UK FAC-1 has already been used by central government and local councils as well as the Football Foundation and Sport England, and several housing associations on new build and refurbishment programmes, and by the developers of Graven Hill, the largest self-build programme in the country.

Internationally, FAC-1 is being translated into Italian, German, Bulgarian and Portuguese and has been approved for piloting by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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