ISG, Amey and Costain now industry’s quickest payers – list

But latest returns from submissions to the Government’s Duty to Report on Payment Practices and Performance indicate there could be early signs that rampant cost inflation is starting to have an impact on speed of payments from main contractors as a whole.

The top 43 main contractors are taking on average nearly 32 days to pay, just over a day slower than a year ago.  Also the average % of invoices not paid within terms rose from 16% a year ago to 21%.

Main contractor payment performance – source Build UK
Firm	Average days to pay invoices	% invoices not paid within terms	% paid invoice within 60 days
ISG	16	26	99
Amey	17	16	98
Costain	19	9	98
Lendlease	21	1	100
railway	23	20	97
Murphy	23	13	94
Morgan Sindall	24	4	99
Canary Wharf Contractors	25	4	98
Galliford Try	26	11	99
VolkerWessels	27	23	96
Vinci	27	14	94
Sir Robert McAlpine	27	4	93
Willmott Dixon	28	12	98
John Sisk & Son	28	16	98
FM Conway	28	13	96
Henry Boot	28	14	95
Mace	28	16	95
Bouygues	28	22	94
BAM Nuttall	29	20	90
McLaren Construction	30	26	99
BAM Construct	30	28	95
M Group Services	30	21	93
Laing O’Rourke	30	17	90
Osborne	30	43	87
Bowmer and Kirkland	31	28	96
limit	32	18	97
Tilbury Douglas	32	45	95
McLaughlin and Harvey	33	20	95
Novus Property Solutions	34	26	90
Kier	35	27	90
Graham Construction	36	4	96
Balfour Beatty	36	15	96
TSL	37	32	89
Multiplex	37	23	87
Robertson Construction	38	32	98
Seddon	38	6	97
Winvic Construction	38	11	94
Eurovia	39	19	85
Skanska	39	46	82
EQUANS	41	1	97
Northstone	48	71	78
Watkin Jones	55	14	81
Colas	63	61	68

Build UK, which has been benchmarking construction payment performance using the official returns since 2018, saw its members do a little better taking on average 30 days to pay invoices.

Over the last five years, tier one contractor Build UK members have reduced their average payment time from 45 to 30 days and now pay 94% of invoices within 60 days, up from 82% five years ago.

Dr David Hancock, construction director at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, said: “Despite the challenging business environment of the last few years, Build UK’s contractor members have delivered a significant result in reducing payment terms to an average of 30 days, which is a huge step towards the Government’s target to pay all suppliers within 30 days and clearly shows the effectiveness of transparent payment reporting.”

Jo Fautley, deputy chief executive of Build UK, said: “This is a great result for construction and proof that the sector is changing the way it does business.

“There is still room for improvement, but we’ve seen consistent progress by our tier one contractor members year on year since Build UK began benchmarking payment performance, and hitting the 30-day threshold is hugely significant, particularly for the supply chain where cash flow is more critical than ever. We hope that the culture of prompt payment continues to spread throughout the sector.”