Sir Michael Anthony Latham DL

HonFREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...

Royal Academy of Engineering. (20 November 1942 – 2 November 2017) was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Political career

Latham was elected to the Churchill Ward on

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

in 1968. He did not stand at the subsequent election in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, but became the Conservative MP for Melton in

February 1974 The following events occurred in February 1974: February 1, 1974 (Friday) *Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...

. In 1983, following boundary changes, was elected to represent Rutland and Melton, before standing down in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

After Parliament

In 1994, he wrote the influential joint government and industry report on the UK construction industry, 'Constructing the Team' (known as the

Latham Report The Latham Report, titled ''Constructing the Team'', was an influential report written by Sir Michael Latham, published in July 1994. Latham was commissioned by the United Kingdom government and industry organisations to review procurement and cont ...

). In it he advocated partnerships within the fragmented and highly contentious construction industry. More significantly, he made many recommendations as to how conflict could be minimised within the industry. Such was the nature and extent of these recommendations that Mr Justice Jackson later described the report as ''"the whirlwind which hit the construction industry".'' In 1997, he was elected as a Honorary

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

. After standing down from parliament he has held numerous positions in the construction industry including chairman of the

Construction Industry Training Board The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is the industry training board for the UK construction industry. History The CITB was established on 21 July 1964 by the Industrial Training (Construction Board) Order 1964,Explanatory Note to The I ...

(2002–10), chairman of ConstructionSkills (2003–10), chairman, then deputy chairman of Willmott Dixon Limited (1999–2002, 2002–09), chairman of Collaborative Working Centre Limited (since 2003) and deputy chairman of BIW Technologies (2000–05). Latham was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the 1993 New Year Honours for ''political service''. He was also an

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, FCGI, Hon. RICS, Hon. FRIBA, Hon. FCIOB and Hon. FICE.

References

External links

Debrett's People of Today
1942 births 2017 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deputy Lieutenants of Leicestershire People from Southport UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 Knights Bachelor Politicians awarded knighthoods Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in the City of Westminster {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub