A main contractor is only as good as the trades on its sites. The cheapest quote is frequently the most expensive appointment, once rework, delay and supervision are counted. These are the things we weigh.

Capacity, honestly stated

The first question is not whether a subcontractor can do the work, but whether they can do it alongside everything else they have committed to. A team already stretched across three sites will give you the crew that is left over.

We would rather hear "we can start in three weeks" than "we can start Monday" from someone who cannot.

Safety, as behaviour rather than paperwork

Policies are easy to produce. What we look at is what happens on site: whether the crew arrives with the right equipment, whether their supervisor corrects unsafe work without being asked, and whether they report near misses rather than hiding them.

A subcontractor whose people take shortcuts endangers our workforce as much as their own, and no price makes that acceptable.

Supervision on site

The best trades bring a working supervisor who reads drawings, sets out correctly and catches errors within their own team. Where that person is absent, the burden shifts to us, and the real cost of the package is higher than the quote.

A price that is real

A quote well below the others usually means one of three things: something has been missed, the specification has been misread, or the intention is to make the margin back through variations. All three end badly.

Before appointing, we check that the scope is understood the same way by both sides — particularly the boundaries, where one trade's work stops and the next begins. Most subcontract disputes live in those gaps rather than in the middle of a package.

Quality that survives inspection

We look for work that is right the first time and for a willingness to correct what is not, without argument. A trade that disputes every snag costs more in management time than the snags themselves.

What we offer in return

The obligations run both ways, and a subcontractor should expect from us:

  • A defined scope, with the boundaries written down
  • Areas handed over ready to work in, and honest notice when they are not
  • Payment on the agreed terms
  • Early notice of programme changes affecting their trade
  • Access to welfare, safe access and the site's safety arrangements

The second one matters more than it sounds. Sending a trade to an area that is not ready wastes their day and ours, and it is the fastest way to lose a good subcontractor to a main contractor who plans better.