A growing realisation that payment is a critical behavioural lever.

For businesses operating in construction, uncertainty has always been part of the landscape. But the pace and intensity of change – commercial, technical and, increasingly, political right now is palpable.

We use to think of parliamentary cycles, with a reasonable expectation of stability between elections. Today, however populist pressure sees us lurching from media storm to leadership challenge, driving ever more short-termism.

This is an industry built on planning, sequencing and managing risk over the long term. When the environment becomes more volatile, projects stall and confidence drains away.

Risk gets reframed and, in the search for greater control, often pushed down the supply chain to those least able to absorb it. Uncertainty doesn’t just affect pricing and programme, it shapes behaviour at every stage of delivery.

Competence, behaviour and system design
The Building Safety Act challenges this, it has sharpened the focus on competence and accountability across the entire lifecycle of a building. As these regulatory requirements become embedded, one message is harder to ignore, that competence is just about individual skills, qualifications or experience. It is about behaviour, and behaviour is shaped by the system within which people
are expected to work.

This system is defined by how work is procured, contracted and rewarded. Fair payment matters, but this is about more than fairness. Commercial practices that keep the supply chain in a constant state of survival actively undermine competence and compliance. Late payment and retentions are more than merely commercial irritants, they impact decision-making, the transfer of risk and undermine investment in training, supervision, innovation and safety. When cash flow becomes uncertain, behaviours deteriorate.

Payment reform and the Small Business Protection Bill
That is why the progression of the Small Business Protection Bill (see Page 22) matters. It recognises payment for what it truly is, a powerful behavioural lever. By seeking to end retentions and introduce meaningful penalties for late payment, the Bill draws a long-overdue line in the sand. Here, political intent meets industry need. This is not about a vague notion of fairness.
It is about creating the conditions in which businesses can invest, plan and perform with confidence. It is about quality, safety and resilience. Some will fight to preserve retentions, but FIS will leave nothing on the pitch in our efforts to see this Bill progress into law and, crucially, into implementation. It will take time, but this must be the final push. In the meantime, we cannot stand still.

Addressing liquidity concerns
Patience may be a virtue, but it rarely gets anyone paid. That is why, as an interim measure, we have written to the Housing Minister and the National Housing Bank, leading a coalition of specialist bodies in setting out a series of immediate actions that could ease pressure throughout the housing supply chain.

The message is simple: if government wants to see better behaviours, it cannot continue to allow major firms to sit on hundreds of millions of pounds that rightly belong in the supply chain. The £16 billion being invested in housing must support liquidity throughout the delivery process, not merely strengthen upstream balance sheets. At the same time, we are doubling down on the systemic abuse of standard form contracts and met again with the Building Safety Regulator in June to reinforce this point. Outside payment, scope is the single biggest driver of disputes.

Poorly drafted, or deliberately confusing contracts blur responsibility and push responsibility for engineering decisions deep into the project, often away from those best placed to make them with too little time or control to manage them.

Fragmentation, regulation and systemic reform
Work with the Building Safety Regulator is beginning to expose these systemic issues more clearly. What is emerging is not a lack of capability, but a fragmented system characterised by unclear responsibility, risk avoidance and disjointed information underpinned by contractual models that set us up to fail.

In that context, competence becomes a pipe dream.

If we are serious about competence, we must be equally serious about the behaviours that shape it. Otherwise, we are asking competent people to operate within an incoherent system and still expecting compliant outcomes. Divided we fail. The Small Business Protection Bill is the start of change, but it will only be realised if we continue to work together with a single, strong voice. Because, together, we are stronger.

“If we are serious about competence, we must be equally serious about the behaviours that shape it.”