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Late payment ‘will result in deaths’ MPs told

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  1. The situation will not get better without some sort of effective intervention. This need not be massively costly or take an age to bring about.

    On behalf of StreetwiseSubbie and the Nationwide Alliance of Specialist Contractors, I have produced a Fair Treatment Charter. This is a simple set of protocols, which if adopted throughout the industry would achieve a much fairer, more open and honest approach to payment throughout the entire supply chain.

    It would be a simple matter to make the Fair Treatment Charter applicable to the contractual relationship between every party in publicly funded contracts, and to amend the Construction Act to make them applicable to every “Construction Contract”.

    The Fair Treatment Charter is available to download on our web site at; http://www.streetwisesubbie.com/fair-treatment-charter

  2. I agree with everything being said, but in addition, Main Contractors give instructions, sign record sheets and then refuse to pay or pay in part for the variation and it seems impossible to come up with a system that gets fair on time payment for the “subbie.” I’ve seen a number of subbies accounts and they are always getting beaten up by arrogant contracts surveyors. There is no affordable mechanism for getting paid for disputed amounts and it would be foolish for anyone to suggest that there is! I despair these days at the state of the industry, the total lack of knowledge and integrity, QSs now buy on price only with scant regard for the specification. Quality, service and performance count for nothing. Not to mention the number of major contractors who ask for hidden discounts to be included in the price and then won’t pay legitimate variations. The current system strongly promotes the need to cut corners and take risks, which providing the Main Contractor has a method statement and the “no hard hat etc.” sign is complied with anything goes. Low prices affect safety! Bad, arrogant, site management affects safety and there is an awful lot of that about. I have an account, a variation occurred, records kept and agreed, variation charged in the first interim account, QS said, let’s deal with that at the end, despite your protests it’s not dealt with and the inevitable happens, at the end the QS wont pay, “let’s do a deal to get the account settled” and you don’t get your entitlement. You can’t afford to battle for few hundreds of pounds and they know it. I think the only way would be for the PQS to actually do his job and take on board the fair valuation of all of the works and be responsible for the on time and full payment of all trade subcontractors, paying from a client escrow account.

  3. Perhaps I am being naïve as to the extent of this practice but we for one would not want to place contracts with companies that had a demonstrable track record of paying their subcontractors deliberately late.

    It is not my experience that the regionally based (often family owned) companies operate in this way. However I am beginning to wonder that with those types of companies being sold to the multinationals in recent years the practice is becoming more prevalent.

  4. I also gave evidence at the enquiry and made the point that the situation will not get better without some sort of effective intervention. This need not be massively costly or take an age to bring about.

    On behalf of StreetwiseSubbie and the Nationwide Alliance of Specialist Contractors, I have produced a Fair Treatment Charter. This is a simple set of protocols, which if adopted throughout the industry would achieve a much fairer, more open and honest approach to payment throughout the entire supply chain.

    It would be a simple matter to make the Fair Treatment Charter applicable to the contractual relationship between every party in publicly funded contracts, and to amend the Construction Act to make them applicable to every “Construction Contract”.

    The Fair Treatment Charter is available to download on our web site at; http://www.streetwisesubbie.com/fair-treatment-charter

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