SEC Group targets late payment legislation
The SEC Group is driving a campaign to introduce new legislation on late payments. The Group has said that it will contact all political parties on 13th December to seek support for a change in the law.
Firms in the SEC group’s member bodies, which include the ECA, BESA, SELECT and SNIPEF, wrote to the 3,322 candidates who stood for election in the 2019 General Election, asking them to support a legislation to protect construction SMEs.
The measures proposed by the SEC Group include mandatory 30-day payments; a complete ban on pay-when-paid clauses; payments on public and infrastructure projects to be made directly to project participants through project bank accounts; and protection for retention monies along with cheaper dispute resolution for small claims and penalties for serial late payers.
As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Carillion collapse, the SEC Group is focused on not allowing that to happen again. However, problems continue to hold back the industry - the construction industry had 3,013 insolvencies in 2018, which was the highest of any sector.
In manifestos for last year’s election, all the main parties had committed to tackling late payment and lengthy payment terms. SEC Group CEO, Rudi Klein, says his organisation will push the parties to follow through with those promises: “We will hold all the parties to their manifesto commitments on payment by producing draft legislation that will ensure security of payment for all construction SMEs.”
