Boom and bust: is there a way out of this wasteful cycle?

By Chloë McCulloch2023-11-17T07:00:00

Contractors face a harsh environment right now and it would help to get clarity from higher up the supply chain on pipeline, procurement and payment

It is tough out there. We are in a period of huge uncertainty for the construction and housebuilding markets, and yet one thing we can be sure of: companies are suffering.

In the past year we have seen several big names go under as inflation tore into jobs that had been secured on fixed-price contracts. High-profile casualties have included the regional contractor Tolent in February, Buckingham in the summer, and last month London M&E specialist MJ Lonsdale (see our analysis, pages 30-32).

Construction is one of the sectors to be most affected by administrations, with data from financial advisory firm Kroll showing that overall numbers for the first nine months of the year were 28% up on the previous year.

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