The Conflict Avoidance Pledge, and supporting members on conflict matters

So far this year I have held a lot of conversations with members and other stakeholders in the construction sector on the matter of conflict and specifically conflict avoidance. The FMB’s business and legal helplines support members with free, expert advice to help you manage, protect and grow your business. In Scotland Lindsays handle debt recovery and construction law queries from members.  

The FMB’s free Dispute Resolution service provides Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to FMB members and their clients, to assist in reaching a satisfactory outcome to building disputes.   

But how conflict be avoided in the first place? 

Using an FMB building contract can help clients to know exactly where they stand at the start. The contracts cover up-to-date legislation and are ‘kilted’ for Scotland. Now just as clients can choose whether to engage the services of a building contractor, so can the contractor choose to deliver work for that client.  

There are many instances when members decide a particular client – be that a homeowner or a commercial client, is not for them. Bidding for and winning the right type of work for your business is essential: as is avoiding difficult clients. Obvious really. 

Whilst I think some members must have a sixth sense in screening clients, even the most savvy will engage with clients in good faith only to regret their choice later on. Almost always it is payment disputes that are at the heart of conflicts: be that driven be the client and/or the Contract Administrator.

The Conflict Avoidance Coalition 

I represent the FMB on this pan-industry coalition which was originally set up by the RICS, now has 96 industry representatives including some clients. The FMB is a signatory of the Conflict Avoidance Pledge (CAP) and the coalition campaigns to raise awareness of conflict avoidance and better dispute management across all parts of the construction industry: from infrastructure, to housebuilding to the domestic building sector. 

This is all about changing behaviours: from better collaboration, cooperation, and communication between contractors, sub-contractors and clients to preventing the huge harm caused by conflicts. A revealing statistic is that the UK construction industry spends 1.6% of its total expenditure on legal services: which is twice the wider economy’s media spend of 0.8%. That is a lot of lost profit. 
 
Later this year I will have more to share on the Conflict Avoidance Coalition but if you want to find out more or share your experiences of avoiding conflicts, please get in touch.

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

Read lessmore