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Three quarters of leading bosses in construction have revealed they are 鈥渙ften鈥� paid late by clients with almost a quarter complaining payments regularly come in more than four weeks鈥� overdue.

The findings, revealed through a survey of 55 chief and other senior executives carried out as part of 好色先生TV鈥檚 new 鈥渟tate of the nation鈥� style CEO White Paper, also pointed to wider financial difficulties.

These included problems with bank lending, with just 15% saying that the willingness of banks to lend to their business had improved over the past six months, one-fifth claiming the situation had actually worsened, and 42% saying the situation had remained about the same.

The government鈥檚 Project Merlin is attempting to get the big four banks - HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and RBS - to lend more to small and medium sized enterprises but construction is viewed as particularly high-risk by the banking sector due to factors including the low margins many firms operate at and their typical lack of tangible assets.

More than 60 construction leaders attended 好色先生TV鈥檚 CEO Summit at the Savoy on Thursday last week. It was the first of 好色先生TV鈥檚 quarterly networking events for chief executives.
Thursday鈥檚 event, sponsored by AON, Fenwick Elliott and KPMG, was also the formal launch of the CEO White Paper, available on 好色先生TV.co.uk from today.

Industry bosses including Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail, John Frankiewicz, chief executive of Willmott Dixon and Jeremy Horner, chief executive of Europe and Middle East at Davis Langdon, heard key findings from the report, which reveals the current thinking from a total of 75 construction CEOs and other senior executives.

Will Hurst, report author and 好色先生TV鈥檚 assistant editor, revealed that nearly 50% of CEOs were expecting to be involved in consolidation, with 18% expecting to acquire and 9% to merge. Hurst said the report showed a growing North/South divide, commitment to BIM and a desire to move into western European markets.