Wrekin boss wants bankers 'shot' after his firm's demise

The decision by RBS to put Wrekin Construction into administration – and throw its 600 employees onto the dole - has infuriated the outside world.

Peter Greenwood, joint managing director, has already made himself something of a folk hero with his quote that “someone should be shot” for allowing Wrekin to go to the wall despite having a huge forward orderbook.

Invited to go further and name a few names, Greenwood said: “I daren’t…anyway there are too many.

“For example, we had RBS people at a recent meeting in Birmingham and not one had any appetite for decision making. It was like a game of pass the parcel. I wouldn’t have let one of them so much as wash my car never mind run a bank.

“There’s been a ground-swell of opposition to RBS. People are calling us and saying that they want to join the fight with the common enemy. Others are pledging money.

“It’s tempting to go to the national press and say what I think about RBS.

“What is galling is that there is no joined-up thinking between government and the bank.

“If Wrekin’s people still had jobs that would be £400,000 PAYE of incoming income for the government, but that’s now lost. Instead, there will be £2.5m for government to pay out by way of redundancies. Then there’s going to be the dole on top of that. It makes no sense.

“This is going to cost taxpayers £10m over the next two years, all in all, yet it would only cost £2m to fix and even that would only be £2m borrowed – we’d not be stealing the £2m as we’d eventually have paid it back.”

Commenting, Rosemary Beales, director of CECA (Civil Engineering Contractors Association), said: “It is sad when an established firm with a good reputation is put in this position. Wrekin Construction has been very positive force for several decades.

“The problems they faced in accessing support from their bank are becoming commonplace.

“We have heard from several contractors who have struggled to get the help they need since the Small Business Finance Scheme was first put forward in November 2008.

“The scheme – which eventually became the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, the Working Capital Guarantee Scheme and the Capital Enterprise Fund in January – is not only confusing, it has also failed to provide effective support.

“CECA has heard numerous examples of smaller contractors who need help and should get help from banks whom the government claim are lending under these schemes, being met with blank looks or being denied support.

“This is not the longer term support that businesses have been led to expect and require.

“Our industry is dependent on cash flow.

“The plight of Wrekin Construction – by no means a small contractor or a failing business – highlights the possibility that government support for business is failing to help the construction industry.”