The Federation has written to the business secretary, Greg Clark, urging the Government to use project bank accounts (PBAs) on public sector projects. PBAs enable all those delivering infrastructure and services to be paid out of one pot – a ring-fenced bank account.

If PBAs had been in place on all of Carillion’s contracts, the losses incurred by the supply chain would have been significantly less.

SEC Group chief executive Professor Rudi Klein said that he was delighted that the FSB had come “on board”. He added: “I would now like to see the Government introduce legislation requiring PBAs to be used on all construction works over £1m. Queensland in Australia has done this. From January 1 2018 this will happen on public sector works and from January 1 2019 on private sector works.”