{"id":45175,"date":"2026-04-01T11:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/?p=45175"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:31:22","slug":"small-businesses-will-be-paid-on-time-as-construction-retentions-set-to-be-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/small-businesses-will-be-paid-on-time-as-construction-retentions-set-to-be-banned\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses will be paid on time as construction retentions set to be banned"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The government has announced that it will ban the use of retention payments in construction contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Announced by the Department for Business and Trade, the move is intended to prevent SMEs from losing money held back against defects, late finishes or when other supply chain firms fail to release funds due to bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measures will tackle a problem costing the UK economy \u00a311 billion every year and ease the cost of living for entrepreneurs and SME owners who are often forced to wait months \u2013 or even years \u2013 to receive money they have already earned and are forced to chase endlessly to receive it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measures, which will be the toughest in the G7, will see the Small Business Commissioner given sweeping new powers to investigate poor payment practices, adjudicate payment disputes, and fine the worst offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said: \u201cFar too many businesses are forced to shut down because they have not been paid \u2013 that is simply unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are unveiling the strongest, most robust changes to payment laws in over a generation \u2013 laws that will transform the fortunes of small businesses for years to come and make their day to day lives much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) Legal Director and Company Secretary, Deborah Harrison, added: \u201cEnding cash retentions has been a long-fought campaign, built on many years of work at BCSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe announcement is a major step forward, alongside stronger powers for the Small Business Commissioner. There is still detail to resolve, but the direction of travel is very welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has announced that it will ban the use of retention payments in construction contracts. Announced by the Department for Business and Trade, the move is intended to prevent SMEs from losing money held back against defects, late finishes or when other supply chain firms fail to release funds due to bankruptcy. The measures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Retentions260401.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3WsLP-bKD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45177,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45175\/revisions\/45177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}