Dozens of M&E firms facing financial black hole after Carillion implosion

Dozens of M&E firm are counting the cost of Carillion’s implosion with many owed an average of close to £250,000 each.

Businesses with less than 10 staff are owed on average £98,000 – with one owed £250,000 – while firms with between 10 and 49 employees owed £141,000 on average.

A survey carried out by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and electrical trade body ECA said one small business was owed £800,000.

And those firms with between 50 and 249 staff are owed an average £236,000, with one firm on the hook for £1.4m.

The survey said 80 firms are owed £75m – although this figure includes the £45m hit Balfour Beatty is facing primarily for its work on the Aberdeen bypass where Carillion was one of three contractors carrying out work.

BESA president Tim Hopkinson said: “These figures give us a clearer picture of just how hard our sector is going to hit in terms of the thousands of pounds of unsecured debt that will be lost by ordinary hard working small businesses, jeopardising their future and the future of their staff.”

Last week Carillion’s liquidator PwC said any work carried out for Carillion on private jobs would be treated as ‘unsecured debt’ and placed at the back of the queue behind other creditors.