Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am most grateful for the speech made by my noble friend Lord Berkeley. With his familiarity with the construction industry, I think that his key point is the increasingly lengthy periods of credit that are expected. Of course, the larger contractor can lean on the smaller sub-contractors on the matter of when payment is due. It provides the answer to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. I can understand her basic gut feeling that it is not really desirable to give by statute a right at any time to demand this or that kind of costly security. I have made the point that the sub-contractor, too, has a great many costs in providing plant, material and equipment and so on out of his own pocket until there is sufficient good will and he receives payment. Therefore, there is a great deal of inequity in the relationships between the contractual parties. To rely on what was originally in the contract without bearing in mind who may have had the greater bargaining strength in making the terms of the contract would be to run against reality. I am grateful for the intervention of my noble friend Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan. He said an extremely odd thing when dealing with my first amendment, which I moved. He made the point, in defence of the existing law, that it is perfectly okay not to pay someone who has done work for you if your client has become insolvent. That provision is allowed by existing law, yet most of the time my noble friend says that we should not have differences between the construction industry and other industries. In what other industry is it possible to ask for work to be done and for equipment and goods to be supplied but then not pay because one has not been paid by the client? There is no general provision of that sort, yet there is a special provision in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. It does not matter that there was a Conservative Government in 1996 and there is a Labour Government now. Whatever type of Government, they have in a number of ways allowed special provision for the construction industry. It is not an adequate answer to any of my amendments that I want special provision for the construction industry. If other industries are suffering then no doubt a case can be made for them. It is probably rude to say that it is a bit rich for my noble friend to criticise my first amendment, which is based on trying to get rid of an anomaly applying to the construction industry, when most of his argument is that we should not make special provision for that industry. Of course, at the end of the day—by which I mean at the end of this day—I will not push my amendment to a vote. However, I hope that I might have some honourable friends elsewhere who will wish to pursue the matter further. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 169AA withdrawn. Clause 139 : Notices relating to payment Amendment 169B not moved. Clause 140 : Requirement to pay notified sum Amendments 169C and 169CA not moved. Clause 141 : Suspension of performance for non-payment Amendments 169D and 169E not moved.