As the economy continues to come to terms with the collapse of Carillion, the latest figures suggest that on the day of liquidation, Carillion was the main contractor on 57 construction projects worth a total of £5.7bn, including a £1.3bn HS2 contract
This latest information comes from construction industry analysts Barbour ABI (See figure 1.1), who outlined that ten of the 57 construction projects were each individually worth more than £150m, such as the Royal Liverpool hospital and an Army basing programme in Salisbury worth £450m and £340m respectively.
Carillion were also involved in 16 framework contracts as part of a list of companies pre-selected or pre-qualified to undertake works for an organisation. These framework contracts are not included as part of the final 57 construction projects as there is no guarantee that they had won any work from the framework.
Commenting on these findings, Michael Dall, Lead Economist at Barbour ABI, said: “Carillion were deeply embedded within the construction industry – they were the second biggest contractor in the UK by revenue. Our records show that they were the main contractor on almost 60 schemes worth a total value of £5.7bn. That is not to mention the plethora of other contracts where they were carrying out other construction roles.
“The sector where Carillion had the largest presence was infrastructure – road and rail projects were a particular speciality for the firm. In addition, Carillion were in the process of delivering two new hospitals and were also responsible for various school improvement projects. What happens to these projects is a matter for conjecture. If the reason Carillion went bust was due to under-bidding then it stands to reason that the financial terms will have to be renegotiated. There is no doubt this will happen but will it happen quickly enough to save the many firms in the Carillion supply chain?”
