The proposed amendments to the Construction Act, recently debated by the House of Lords, will make the legislation worse unless specialist subcontractors take action

Their representatives have consistently lobbied to close loopholes, such as the one that allows an innocent party to pay all the costs in an adjudication. Fair, quick and economic adjudication was a cornerstone of Sir Michael Latham’s report Constructing the Team, which led to the Act in the first place.

The proposed changes seem unlikely to prevent that problem, and there is a bit of a nonsense in other areas too. One wonders how those involved in the amendments has been spending their time and our money for the past few years.

The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group has proposed changes to the draft amendments, and in the case of adjudication has suggested that everyone follow the Scheme for Construction Contracts. It works, it is fair and it is straightforward – three reasons why some groups don’t want it.

Because of that and other poorly conceived drafting, the changes to the Act will assist those who seek to abuse it.

If I were still a subcontractor, I would ring my trade association, write to my MP, forward this letter to every other subcontractor I know and start a petition. The Act, in force since 1998, is the best thing since battery-powered tools as far as specialist subcontractors are concerned. The proposed changes will only create problems for them.

Barry J Ashmore, Ashmore Consulting

Source

Building Sustainable Design

Postscript

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