April 2018

Editor’s Comment
MATT DOWNS
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
MATTDOWNS@MEDIA-NOW.CO.UK
COVER PIC:
COURTESY OF
KEMPER SYSTEM
The demise of Carillion has brought the issue of payment front
and centre for specialist contractors; Carillion’s collapse
reportedly left 30,000+ small businesses with money still owed
to them, and the construction giant was said to have in excess of
£1.5bn worth of outstanding payments whilst having issued three
profit warnings in just five months.
Unfortunately, there will be many casualties from this disaster and the
ripples will be felt for years to come, but we all know payment is a
perennial problem for specialist contractors, one that they have to
negotiate from project to project. It’s a problem that associations and
construction bodies have tried to address throughout the years but
with little success; is this because when you have a supply chain with
somebody at the top, more often than not, someone gets squeezed?
Even if there is an inevitability when it comes to poor payment practice,
this shouldn’t mean the people who can do something about it should
stop looking for solutions, and it certainly won’t stop us debating the
topic in Total Contractor. As such, we have input from two experienced
roofing contractors in this issue with Jason Wright discussing some of
the situations he’s found himself in on projects over the years (p68),
and Simon Smith outlining the many hurdles a specialist contractor has
to clear – away from the installation side of projects – just to get paid
on time and in full (p72). Perhaps it won’t make pleasant reading, but
I’d say it’s important reading for any contractor looking to focus on what
they do best, rather than worrying about getting paid.
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Matt
Roofing contractor Garhigh Southern carried out renovation works at ADM
Milling penthouse using Kemper System’s Kemperol 2K-PUR: See p42
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