NEWS / Press Releases / ACE responds to collapse of Carillion

PR

15 JAN 2018

ACE RESPONDS TO COLLAPSE OF CARILLION

Construction giant goes into liquidation

Chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, comments on Carillion:

"It’s always a sad day when a company goes into liquidation, putting at risk thousands of jobs and livelihoods. The collapse of Carillion also has a number of major ramifications for our industry.

"In the immediate term, we need to ensure that our members from the consultancy and engineering sector, who worked with Carillion on some of the key infrastructure contracts they held, are paid. There are always competing interests when a company goes into liquidation, but the importance of our members to delivering the nation’s infrastructure is such that we would argue they should be at the front of any queue. We will lobby the Government and creditors to ensure that this is the case.

"In the medium term, our members are ready and willing to provide their knowledge, expertise and guidance to the Government to help see them through the difficult months ahead. We cannot allow the collapse of Carillion to slow the delivery of some of our major infrastructure projects like HS2, nor affect the maintenance of our existing infrastructure, like the rail network.

"In the long term, this is an awakening for major structural change in the construction industry. The challenges of low profitability and negative cash flow experienced by the contracting sector confirm that the current procurement process is broken. A new business model, coupled with client leadership, is urgently required to make our industry fit-for-the-future and ensure we won’t experience difficulties with other major players."

ENDS

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Media Contact

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email07852 536 944