Leader

摘要

It's been a hell of a year - hell being the operative word that describes a whole lot more than the Brexit fiasco that seems more out of control with every news bulletin. Cast your mind back to our first edition in 2018 when we were witnessing Carillion desperately trying to fix its finances. Our 2018 predictions feature suggested this year would be make or break time for the UK's second biggest contractor, but few could have known that in just a matter of days the government would pull the plug and force it into compulsory liquidation. While the initial collapse was sudden and dramatic, the fallout has been slow and painful as the number of company collapses in the supply chain steadily increased. One thing is clear, Carillion - for all its unique faults - reflects a general malaise among main contractors and to some extent the wider construction industry. How is it possible, as Mace's Mark Castle told Building Live last month, that companies focused solely on contracting find it extremely hard to make margins above 2%? Our annual Top ISO Contractors and Housebuilders research published in July revealed that the country's 10 biggest contractors made a combined margin of less than half a percent on turnover of £31bn. The average margins for all the contractors in the league was higher, but still only 1.7%. This pitiful return is in stark contrast to the volume housebuilders, racking up margins of 14% and accounting for 87% of all the profit in the league.