According to Constructionline, the UK's largest and only government-backed pre-qualification service, the length of time it takes to complete pre-qualification questionnaires is the biggest challenge faced by construction companies when tendering for work.
Conducted in February/March this year, the survey of nearly 900 construction firms, two thirds of which have a turnover of £2 million or less, revealed that more than more than half (55%) saw this as a major challenge.

The second biggest hurdle, experienced by 51% of respondents, is facing competition from larger firms. A further 19% cited 'unreasonable' client demands.

A standardised pre-qualification process is the most popular thing that private and public sector clients could do to help firms apply for and win work, with 68% of those surveyed reporting that this would help. In addition, 41% of firms said receiving more contract details would help, followed by 32% who wanted better advertising of available contracts.

However, 71% of companies saw their workload increase or stay the same over the past three months, while 85% expect it to increase or remain the same over the next three. Furthermore, 23% of firms have seen work cancelled in the last six months compared to nearly 59% six months ago, when the last supplier survey took place.

Philip Prince, sales and marketing director at Constructionline, said: Whilst the pre-qualification process is essential in assessing a firm's capability of delivering a project on time, to budget, to standard and with minimum fault - the process is made longer and more complex, when contractors spend hours submitting the same information for seemingly identical questions for different, and in some cases, the same client.'

He added: 'Construction firms are positive about the future and many seem to be signalling that the economy is improving, by expecting workloads to grow and the number of shelved projects to reduce. However, it would be a pity if such progress continued to be hampered by the vexed question of onerous and duplicated pre-qualification.'