Early access · UK specialist subcontractors
Manage workflow, control retention
Access funds early
When a main contractor misses the Pay Less Notice deadline, the Notified Sum crystallises - the money is yours to force. Contra tracks every Application for Payment and catches the deadline the moment it lapses. Draw Forward™ advances the sum the day it is yours - not in eighty days.
Stop financing your main contractor.
Early access for UK specialist subcontractors. No spam, no sharing.
every UK subcontract runs on.
Protect. Recover. Accelerate.
Protect revenue
Recover cash
Accelerate payment
The wait
You are owed the money. You are made to wait for it.
You wait 65 to 80 days to be paid for work already signed off - the slowest terms of any sector. And when a main contractor collapses while you wait, what you are owed goes with it: 3,827 UK construction firms went insolvent in the twelve months to March 2026, specialist subs over half of every monthly count.
The Construction Act makes that money yours to force the moment a notice is missed. Most subcontractors never take it.
The mechanic
Six statutory steps turn a missed notice into your money.
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives the subcontractor the right to force payment on every missed notice. Contra tracks the sequence on every Application for Payment, so the day a deadline lapses the money is yours to take.
You submit an Application for Payment.
The AfP lands with the main contractor on the agreed monthly date.
The Clock starts.
The Construction Act timeline begins from the day the application is received.
The main contractor must issue a Payment Notice within five days of the due date.
Contra reads whatever they send - any contractor, any format - and pulls the Notified Sum and the dates. Nothing is typed twice.
If the Payment Notice is missed, they may issue a Pay Less Notice before the final date for payment.
Reducing the sum, with the basis for the reduction stated.
If both deadlines pass without a notice, the entitlement crystallises.
The applied-for sum becomes the Notified Sum under section 111 of the Act. The main contractor must pay it.
Contra drafts the Construction Act demand letter. Dated, signed, admissible.
The principle is Macob v Morrison [1999] EWHC 254 (TCC) - pay now, argue later. The adjudicator’s decision is binding within twenty-eight days.
Access funds early
Do not wait eighty days for money that is already yours.
The moment a deadline lapses, the Notified Sum crystallises - a debt the main contractor must pay in full. Draw Forward advances it to you the day it is yours, not sixty or eighty days later. You stop financing your main contractor and put the cash back into your own business.
to be paid for work already certified - the slowest cycle of any sector.
the Notified Sum crystallises, in your account before the main contractor pays.
The law is moving
Three regulatory acts. One direction.
Parliament is closing the door on late payment in construction. Contra is built around the mechanics already in force, and ready for the mechanics coming next.
Procurement Act 2023, section 73
Live. Implies a 30-day payment term down every tier of public-sector subcontracts.
King's Speech 2026
Confirmed the government's late-payment and retention reform for construction. The policy basis for the Commercial Payments Bill.
Commercial Payments Bill (HL Bill 4)
Introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Leong; now in committee. It bans retention in construction through new sections 113A to 113F of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996: a two-year transition, after which new clauses are void and every retained sum must be released by the end of the third year.
The retention float held against the UK subcontractor base sits between £3.2bn and £5.9bn at any time. The Commercial Payments Bill ends it. The Procurement Act tightens the cycle on every public-sector pound. Contra is built for both - Construction Act mechanics today, retention release tracking through the transition, statutory interest on every late payment.
Contra
The next missed deadline is the one that puts cash in your account.
Contra tracks every Application for Payment and every Construction Act deadline, and turns each missed notice into money you can force. Draw Forward advances it the day it is yours. Early access is opening to UK specialist subcontractors.
Construction Act workflow for UK specialist subcontractors.