Retentions: not enough interest

The trade and industry select committee has received only one response following the Department of Trade & Industry's (DTI) report on retentions, issued nearly three weeks ago (CJ 19 February).

Committee chairman Martin O'Neill told CJ that the single response by the Specialist Engineering Contractors' (SEC) Group was not enough to add weight to a forthcoming letter to construction minister Brian Wilson, asking him to justify the government's position in support of retentions.

SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein voiced his surprise at the response rate as several letters from the Federation of Master Builders and the National Specialist Contractors Council had been posted to the committee.

"We will increase our efforts to get more responses as this will be crucial to the cause," he said.

Klein added that he will also be sending a letter to Tony Edwards, the Home Office's project director for the redevelopment of its Marsham Street offices, as retentions are being used on the project.

O'Neill said: "We are disappointed by the government's view and we want an answer from the minister as to why his department gave such a poor reply. However we need the ammunition to get the full impact."

The DTI ruled out legislative changes even though the select committee had not proposed them in its initial report. "We knew that changes to legislation would have been too difficult and probably not worth the effort," he said.

"However, the usual excuses by ministers that they can't make changes to the use of retentions because of time constraints is now wearing thin."

O'Neill said that getting the minister to enter into a Commons' debate was not out of the question, but was "too soon to call". An evidence session will be held next week with a letter sent to Wilson in the next 10 days.