Willmott Dixon has called on all its top-tier supply chain partners to register with the Considerate Constructors Scheme in an effort to ensure a considerate supply chain.

All of Willmott Dixon's 600 Category A supply chain partners, which make-up around 85% of the company's total supply chain spend, are being encouraged to join its new Category A Plus programme and the company is keen that suppliers who do also register with the Scheme. The move is intended to ensure its main supply partners are dedicated to achieving the highest standards of considerate construction.

Membership means that the Considerate Constructors Scheme - the organisation established to improve the image of construction – can work with Willmott Dixon's supply chain partners to monitor and encourage best practice in consideration to their workforce, the local environment and those communities impacted by their construction activities.

This pioneering initiative by Willmott Dixon forms part of its 'Better Together' programme introduced earlier this year, where its largest suppliers move to the newly created Category A Plus standard as part of a strategy to work with fewer suppliers to strengthen relationships, collaborate more closely on future workload and ultimately improve efficiency and quality of the products delivered to customers.

The company aims to have over 220 of its supply chain partners registered to Category A Plus by the end of 2019. It follows Willmott Dixon being the best performing major contractor in Build UK's first-ever list of supply chain payment times, compiled from data submitted under the Duty to Report on Payment Practices and Performance. This showed the company's average supply chain payment time was 33 days.

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Willmott Dixon's Group Chief Executive, Rick Willmott: "Having a sustainable and reliable team of supply chain partners is a strategic priority for Willmott Dixon as we get ready for a post-Brexit era. By working with an exceptional supply chain, we can deliver to the highest quality for our customers and it is a natural step to encourage our Category A Plus suppliers to be registered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme, which has served our industry so well in supporting good relations within the communities where we build our projects."

Steve Watson, National Supply Chain Director at Willmott Dixon added: "We believe that CCS is a truly unique scheme and something we have benefitted from hugely over the years. Introducing this to our supply chain was the next natural step in our journey. Our goal is to create a world-class leading supply chain where we only work with companies that share the same values and beliefs, by doing this we can provide our customers with a great experience and a perfect product. The Considerate Constructors Scheme will enable us to work with a like-minded supply chain that cares about the image of construction, the communities we work within and most importantly want to strive to become better in all that we do together."

Considerate Constructors Scheme Chief Executive Edward Hardy commented: "This is an immense achievement by Willmott Dixon, and a huge step forward for the construction industry. By making this ground-breaking commitment, Willmott Dixon is setting the standard in what can be achieved when the principal contractor and supply chain work in true collaboration.

"We are pleased to see an ever-increasing number of Willmott Dixon's supply chain partners register with the Scheme and enjoy the many benefits it brings in driving best practice throughout their organisation. Being a considerate constructor is about the entire supply chain; from the client to the principal contractor, subcontractors and beyond.

"Willmott Dixon encouraging its Category A Plus supply chain partners to register with the Scheme is game-changing and signifies the importance of making a successful, sustainable supply chain with shared goals to improve the image of construction. We are excited to see how many more Scheme-registered Partners and sites will adopt this commitment to require supply chain registration with the Scheme in the future."

Willmott Dixon has been a Partner of the Scheme for 14 years and commits all of its construction sites to be registered with the Scheme. It currently has around 100 live construction sites registered with the Scheme. A total of 60 of Willmott Dixon's Category A supply chain partners are now registered, with a further 150 anticipated to register with the Scheme before the end of 2019.