NG Bailey boss fires warns price drop will lead to demise of some 鈥榤edium contractors鈥 in next two years

state of play

The UK construction market is heading for 鈥渟ignificant failure鈥 because of contractors underbidding, the boss of the UK鈥檚 largest private M&E contractor NG Bailey has said.

Speaking as the M&E contractor to 好色先生TV magazine this week, David Hurcomb 鈥 who previously held board roles at contractors Carillion and Mansell 鈥 said he believed 鈥渟ome medium contractors will go bump within two years鈥.

He said: 鈥淭he prices that work is going for are pretty scary. All it means is there鈥檚 going be some big losses in a couple of years time.

鈥淚n certain parts of the market the perfect storm is there for significant failure. There鈥檚 too many people and not enough work [and] contractors are taking on risks they don鈥檛 fully understand.鈥

He called for 鈥渟anity to prevail鈥 in terms of contractors鈥 pricing of jobs and said contractors were 鈥渂uying up problems鈥 by taking on subcontractors at 鈥渦nsustainable prices鈥.

He said: 鈥淪ome of these subcontractors won鈥檛 be there to finish the projects. This is what we saw in the nineties when the supply chain was virtually murdered .鈥

He admitted NG Bailey 鈥 which this week revealed a return to a pre-tax profit of 拢7.2m 鈥 also had 鈥減roblem jobs鈥 and said the wider M&E sector had been 鈥渄ecimated鈥 and would see further casualties beyond giants MJN Colston and Airedale, which collapsed earlier this year.

He added: 鈥淲e lose jobs by significant margins at times - below cost - so there is a dogfight going on out there.鈥

For NG Bailey鈥檚 full year results