BFS releases study on UK construction SMEs

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) shares new insights into the specific challenges UK construction SMEs are facing today, which include rising costs, bad debt and increased difficulty accessing external finance.

The study from BFS is based on its latest survey of 1,000 UK SMEs and shows that, compared to its peers, the construction sector is the industry most sceptical of the Government’s ability to support them in the face of turbulent economic conditions.

Key findings of the report include:

– 60 per cent of small construction firms believe the Government’s Industrial Strategy will disproportionately benefit large contractors, leaving smaller businesses at a disadvantage.
– four in 10 small construction firms are not confident in the Government’s ability to support them in the face of unstable economic conditions.
– SME construction firms have had to write off an average of over £23,000 in bad debt in the past year as they face higher costs and cashflow challenges.
– According to BCIS’s latest figures, nearly a fifth of all insolvencies in England and Wales in March were construction firms, highlighting the damaging effects for the sector.

Please see below the full report which includes commentary from the Federation of Master Builders.