A campaign for fair payment through the construction supply chain has won an award for best practice.

The National Specialist Contractors' Council (NSCC) was praised for its Fair Payment Campaign, which "transformed the business environment", according to judges.

The NSCC beat off four other trade bodies to win the Sector Representation Award at the Trade Association Forum (TAF) Best Practice Awards on Thursday June 29.


Its campaign, which has been running for almost five years, raised awareness of the need for prompt and fair payment to improve businesses' cashflow and achieved three significant outcomes.

The public sector is now committed to 30-day payment terms, changes have been made to the UK's Construction Act, and all 32 of NSCC's member organisations have committed to eliminating cash retentions.

The judges commended the campaign on its success, saying: "NSCC has had a fantastic result in their lobbying campaign which raised the profile of a huge problem for their members and has subsequently transformed the business environment for specialist contractors, particularly impressive given the size of the organisation."

(NE)