SEC Group hunts new peers to table Construction Bill amendments

The Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group is being forced to rely on other peers to table amendments to the Construction Bill after SEC president Lord O’Neill was forced to withdraw his proposed changes amid the "cash for amendments" scandal.

Lord O’Neill was not accused of any wrongdoing but withdrew the proposals, which aimed to help SMEs by allowing them to suspend a contract unless contractors could provide proof they could pay suppliers, because he "felt it inappropriate in the current climate to pursue them".

Now SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein has revealed that he has written to 100 peers in a bid to convince one of them to table the amendments in Lord O’Neill’s place.

He said: "We are more determined that ever to get the amendments back on the agenda."

However he admitted that the only way to do this, now that Lord O’Neill had been forced to retreat, was to persuade other members of the House of Lords to wade in.

"There are peers who are, or who have been, involved with many SMEs and are happy to speak first-hand about their experiences.

"All I can do now is hope that a handful of them can lay amendments. But that is all I can expect at the moment," he said.