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Working as a senior procurement manager for a national house builder I can only wholeheartedly concur with the frustration felt of how the insurance companies are reacting in these straightened times. I am further angered by the reaction of some of our suppliers who 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 are not policies 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 in this industry and surely risk taking is all part of any survival strategy. Given the debt to equity ratio of the majority of the top 20 housebuilders they shouldn't exist, but funnily enough we are all hanging on in there. Once we climb out of this particular unpleastness, 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!