H2 Construction Ltd - Commercial Protection for the Construction Industry

11/06/2026

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently. Dangerous, I know!

A social media post caught my attention this week. Not the original post, but the comments underneath it.

The discussion centred around a couple who had made the heartbreaking decision to terminate a pregnancy involving Down’s syndrome.

There were 179 comments!!!

What fascinated me wasn’t that people were offended by the language they used. I can understand that.

What fascinated me was that I couldn’t find anyone talking about the parents.

Nobody seemed curious about what they might have been going through.

Nobody seemed interested in understanding the pain that may have created those words.

It got me thinking about something much bigger.

How often do we react to what we can see without ever questioning what created it?

I see this everywhere. In life, business, relationships and in leadership.

We judge the words, the behaviour, the decisions and the reactions, but rarely stop to ask what experiences sit underneath them.

Maybe that’s why I’ve always been more interested in understanding people than judging them.

Maybe that’s why I spend so much of my time looking for the story underneath.

Anyway, one thought turned into another, which turned into several thousand words.

The result is my latest article:

The Story Underneath

I’d love to know whether it resonates with you, challenges you, or whether you think I’ve completely lost the plot.

Link in the comments.

04/06/2026

Most crisis don’t start in crisis

This isn’t from this week’s clip, it’s actually an older clip, but the message is just as relevant today.

One of the things I’ve never understood about construction is the obsession with getting on site as quickly as possible.

Over the years, I’ve lost count of the number of projects I’ve walked onto where the site office is set up, the welfare facilities are in place, the management team is costing money every day, yet the project isn’t actually ready to start.

The design isn’t fully coordinated, key decisions haven’t been made, information is still outstanding, or packages haven’t been properly procured. Everyone is busy, everyone is under pressure, but nobody has stopped to ask whether getting on site was actually the right thing to do at that moment.

I understand why it happens. Sometimes there is pressure from funders. Sometimes there is pressure from clients. Sometimes people simply want to demonstrate progress. Sometimes there are cashflow issues elsewhere that are influencing decisions. But whatever the reason, rushing rarely creates the outcome people are hoping for.

The amount of times I’ve heard people say, “We’ll deal with that later.” In my experience, later is often too late.

When I look back at the projects and businesses I’ve been brought in to support, whether that’s a distressed project, a commercial dispute or a business facing serious financial pressure, the root cause is very rarely the event that finally brings everything to a head.

The warning signs were usually there much earlier.

By the time a project reaches crisis point, the opportunity to make simple, inexpensive corrections has often passed.

That’s one of the reasons I care so much about early intervention. Not because every project is heading for disaster, but because the earlier you identify a problem, the more options you have available to you.

I tend to look at every project and every contract as if it could end up in dispute or drift into crisis. That mindset has helped me identify issues early and avoid many disputes and crises throughout my career.

As I mention in this clip from Taking the Con out of Construction, an extra week spent preparing at the beginning of a project can save months of pain later on.

It’s a lesson I’ve seen proven time and time again throughout my career.

What warning signs do you think people ignore most often in construction?

03/06/2026

One of the things I’ve learned from construction is that water and people have more in common than you might think.

Water will always find the path of least resistance.

If there’s a weakness, a gap, a crack or an easier route, eventually it will find it.

Some business owners do exactly the same thing.

When things get difficult, it’s often easier to avoid the uncomfortable conversation than have it. Easier to push a decision back until next week. Easier to hope a problem resolves itself than properly address it. Easier to start a new project than deal with the issues on the existing one.

The problem is that, just like a water leak, the damage doesn’t always show up where the problem started.

You notice the stain on the ceiling.

The source of the leak could be on the other side of the building.

It’s the same with businesses and projects.

The cashflow issue isn’t always a cashflow issue.

The dispute isn’t always about the dispute.

The programme delay isn’t always caused by what happened on site.

Often what you’re seeing is simply the visible symptom of something that started much earlier.

Over the last 25 years, I’ve found that the most valuable conversations are rarely about the problem everyone can see. They’re about understanding what caused it in the first place.

Because once you identify the source, you can fix it properly.

Until then, you’re just repainting the ceiling.

What’s a lesson from your industry that applies far beyond the work itself?

02/06/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions in construction is that a project is either making money or losing money.

The reality is rarely that simple.

Many businesses are making a profit.

The question is whether they are making the profit they should be making.

Over the last 25 years I’ve worked with contractors, developers and consultants of all sizes, and one of the most common things I see is profit quietly leaking away.

Not because people are incompetent.

Not because they don’t work hard.

But because they don’t fully understand what they’re entitled to recover.

Client changes are instructed but never properly valued.

Scope creep becomes accepted as “just getting the job done”.

Additional management time isn’t captured.

Compliance requirements increase, but the cost of delivering them isn’t properly understood or recovered.

Teams spend weeks dealing with problems created elsewhere in the supply chain and nobody stops to calculate what that has actually cost the business.

The result is often a project that appears profitable on paper but has delivered significantly less profit than it should have.

Construction businesses do not need more noise.

They need greater clarity.

Clarity around risk.

Clarity around entitlement.

Clarity around responsibility.

Clarity around where money is being made and where it is quietly disappearing.

This clip from Taking the Con out of Construction explores some of the hidden ways profit is lost long before a business realises there is a problem.

01/05/2026

We keep talking about barriers for women in construction.

But we’re not talking about this one.

Sometimes, the biggest barrier isn’t men.

It’s women.

Before anyone reacts, read that again properly.

I’m not dismissing bias, culture or the challenges women face. They exist. I’ve experienced them.

But I’ve also spent 30 years in this industry watching something else happen.

Women isolating themselves.
Women competing instead of supporting.
Women damaging each other’s reputation inside businesses.

And no one wants to say it out loud.

Men see it. They just don’t feel they can comment on it anymore.

So I will.

If we actually want change, we need to look at the full picture. Not just the version that’s comfortable.

I’ve written about it here.

https://buff.ly/osw1zGb

We keep talking about barriers in construction.

21/04/2026

Paid in less than 10 minutes

One of my clients called me because he wasn’t getting paid.

Same story I see all the time.

Work done. Done well. Payment agreed.

Then suddenly…

“Accounts are blocking it.”

And out of nowhere, they try and land a fully loaded JCT D&B contract on him. High LADs, ridiculous terms… after the work is already finished.

It’s not just wrong. It’s desperate.

They were trying to bully him into a weaker position.

The problem is, they didn’t actually understand the position they were in.

No Pay Less notice. No valid mechanism to withhold. Nothing.

They weren’t in control. They just thought they were.

I spoke to their QS first. Nice enough guy, but completely missed it. Didn’t understand the legal position, didn’t understand the risk, didn’t understand that what they were doing was wrong and potentially going to cost them more.

So I went above him.

One conversation with someone who did understand, and everything changed.

We stripped it right back to what it should have been in the first place.

A simple minor works contract. A few pages. Clear. Proportionate. Reflecting the actual job that had already been done.

Issued. Reviewed. Agreed. Signed.

Paid in full.

Then my client asked me to invoice him.

I sent it.

Paid instantly.

That’s what happens when you do things properly.

I could have dragged that out. Turned it into a fight. Charged him thousands.

But that wouldn’t have been in his best interest.

He didn’t want a dispute. He wanted his money, his margin, and to keep the relationship intact.

So that’s what we did.

This is why I say the same thing over and over again…

Get me in early.

It’s faster.
It’s cheaper.
And you have options.

Leave it too late and I’m not calling the person who owes you money.

I’m calling a liquidator to see what damage we can limit.

If you’re chasing payments right now, or something doesn’t feel right on a project…

Don’t wait.

14/04/2026

I’ve just written something that’s been sitting with me for a long time.

Why do so many construction projects lose money… even when everything looks like it’s going well?

It’s rarely one big thing.

It’s not the “bad job” everyone talks about afterwards.

It’s the smaller decisions that happen along the way.

Starting before everything is ready.
Design still evolving while work is already on site.
Costs creeping in that aren’t fully understood or tracked.

And for a while, it all looks fine.

The job is busy.
People are working.
Money is moving.

But underneath it, margin is quietly disappearing.

I see this pattern all the time when I’m brought into projects.

And by the time it’s obvious, it’s usually too late to fix everything cleanly.

I’ve written a full breakdown of this on Substack, sharing the commercial realities of what’s actually going on behind the scenes.

If you’re in construction, or know someone who is, it’s worth a read:

👉 https://substack.com//note/p-194090313?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=42u888

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I’ll be sharing more of this kind of insight there going forward, so feel free to follow along if it’s relevant to you.

A Commercial Reality Often Overlooked

02/04/2026

MTD isn’t a tax change. It’s exposure.

MTD going live for the self-employed is being massively underestimated.

This isn’t just about submitting tax returns quarterly.

This is visibility.

HMRC will now see where money is coming from, how often it’s being paid, and who it’s being paid to.

And that’s where this becomes a serious problem for construction.

Because a large part of the industry is built on labour-only models that, if we’re being honest, don’t always stand up to scrutiny.

People working full-time, long-term, under direction, but being treated as self-employed.

That’s not new.

What is new is the level of visibility.

And once that data is there, it’s very easy to start asking questions.

Employment status.
Tax.
NI.
Backdated liabilities.

This isn’t small.

What frustrates me is how relaxed people are about it.

This is the kind of thing that doesn’t cause a problem straight away.

It builds quietly in the background, and then lands all at once.

And when it does, it won’t just be HMRC asking questions.

It will be businesses trying to deal with liabilities they didn’t plan for, on top of everything else already going on.

I understand why HMRC are doing it.

But the reality is, a lot of businesses are not set up for this level of scrutiny.

And right now, I don’t see enough people taking it seriously.

02/04/2026

Why are people still accepting non-payment in 2026?

I don’t understand how people do the work and then just accept it.

I really don’t.

Because I’ve seen the impact of it too many times.

Cash flow disappears.
Pressure builds.
And good businesses end up in positions they should never have been in.

If the work has been done properly and the position is right, I will always pursue it.

Sometimes that’s a well written letter that makes it very clear where things stand.

Sometimes it’s stepping back from site or withholding information until things are resolved.

And sometimes it does go further.

I had to take two clients to court last year. One was resolved quickly. The other is still ongoing, but the position is strong.

That’s part of it.

What frustrates me is how often people rely on relationships instead of protection.

They’ve known the client for years. They get on well. They trust them.

And then when it matters, that doesn’t count for anything.

I’ve been there myself.

I’ve been too comfortable. Trusted the situation. Not documented things as well as I should have.

And it makes the fight harder than it ever needed to be.

I also know what happens when this goes too far.

I grew up around a business that built to around £75 million turnover.

And I watched it fall apart.

Along with the family behind it.

So I don’t take any of this lightly.

What I can’t get my head around is that with the Construction Act, the contracts we have, the systems, the software, even AI now…

Businesses are still walking away from money they’ve worked hard for.

Not because they have to.

Because they don’t realise the position they’re in, or they don’t feel confident enough to act on it.

That’s the bit that needs to change.

Because you work too hard for your money to just let it go.

01/04/2026

I’m hearing the same payment excuses over and over at the moment.

Director’s away. Waiting for sign off. Accounts haven’t processed it yet.

And I just don’t buy it.

There isn’t a system on the planet where a director can’t authorise a payment from wherever they are. People don’t run businesses like that. Or at least they shouldn’t.

What I am seeing more of is financial control sitting with people who don’t really understand how construction contracts work, and that’s where the risk starts to creep in.

Because most contracts are actually very clear. If an application isn’t certified by the required date, the opportunity to pay less is gone and the amount applied becomes payable. If it’s then not paid in line with the contract, the employer is in breach.

That’s not a grey area, it’s just how it works.

What surprises me is how relaxed some businesses are about this. Payments get delayed, positions get pushed, and there’s still this mindset that the subcontractor will just accept it.

But that’s changing.

With low value adjudications now much more accessible, subcontractors are in a stronger position than they’ve been in for a long time. In a lot of these situations, they’re actually the ones holding the cards.

And yet the behaviour hasn’t caught up.

I still see businesses trying to apply pressure where they don’t really have the leverage they think they do, and in doing that, they’re exposing themselves far more than they realise.

It doesn’t need to be like that.

Most of this comes down to understanding the contract, understanding the timing, and actually acting on it properly.

At the moment, too many aren’t.

And it will catch up with them.