Construction: Late payments bankrupting suppliers

Construction companies that pay suppliers late are causing hundreds of businesses to go under every month, it has been claimed.

Trade associations representing more than 24,000 businesses are calling on the Government not to use companies with a history of late payment for public works.

A letter signed by the chief executives of the Federation of Master Builders and the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors, among others, says that the “widespread, long-standing culture” of paying small suppliers late, or even not at all, has resulted in at least 10 firms going insolvent every day. It says the economy will not benefit from investment in construction unless “the money flows quickly through to the people on the ground”.