Working as a senior procurement manager for a national housebuilder, I wholeheartedly concur with the frustration felt at how those offering trade insurance are reacting in these straitened times (17 April, page 28)

I am further angered by the reaction of some of our suppliers, which could actually continue to trade with us but are using the excuse that it is “company policy” not to do so if cover cannot be obtained. These policies are not written in stone, the directors choose to apply them or not. Hell’s bells! We are all looking down the barrel of a gun at the moment and surely risk-taking is all

part of any survival strategy. Given the debt-to-equity ratio of most of the top 20 housebuilders, they shouldn’t exist, but funnily enough we are all hanging in there.

Once we climb out of this particular unpleasantness, and we will, the companies who were willing to support us through thick and thin will be remembered – as will the ones who did not!

Larry Shepherd

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