Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a policy of requiring cash retentions from the construction industry to be placed in a trust in the event of insolvency.

The Government acknowledges that some people are unhappy with the system of retentions as it stands, but it is an embedded feature of the construction industry. Therefore, our general approach is to work with the industry through the Construction Leadership Council and its supply chain payment charter; endorsing its commitment to zero retentions by 2025.

That will involve quite far-reaching changes to the way the sector works. With regard to shorter-term measure to require retentions to be held in trust, we must act on the basis of evidence. That is why the Government is commissioning an analysis of the cost and benefit of retention payments to inform future action.