Holmes & Hills
Collaboration or risk dumping?
The construction industry has never been shy about embracing the language of collaboration. It appears in tender documents, procurement strategies and standard forms like NEC. Clients want collaborative delivery; contractors talk about partnering; supply chains are encouraged to work towards shared objectives.
Yet many projects still begin with contracts that seek to transfer as much risk as possible down the supply chain.
So has construction genuinely become more collaborative, or have we simply become better at describing traditional risk transfer in more positive terms?
The problem with passing down risk Projects are often procured on the principle that risk should sit with the party best able to accept it. In reality, this can result in risk landing on whoever has the least bargaining power, rather than whoever is best placed to manage it. A common example: subcontractors required to accept the entire main contract“ as read and understood,” rather than having specific relevant obligations flowed down deliberately.
This is more clearly seen in the volume of amendments made to standard form contracts, including the collaborative NEC, which begins to shift the risk profile more heavily in favour of the party with bargaining power.
The consequences are familiar: contractors pricing uncertainty into bids, subcontractors protecting increasingly tight margins, and parties being labelled“ too contractual” simply for seeking clarity. By the time a problem surfaces on site, relationships are often already strained.
Risk doesn’ t disappear
Risk can be transferred on paper, but not always in practice. Making a roofing subcontractor responsible for ground conditions achieves little if they lack the expertise to identify the risk in the first place. Similarly, employers who ignore industrywide supply chain pressures may harm price and programme more than they protect against it.
The project still carries the risk regardless of who is contractually liable. Aggressive risk allocation often just changes who pays when something goes wrong, it doesn’ t reduce the chance of it happening.
Why the industry is reconsidering its approach
Projects are becoming more complex, regulation is evolving, and economic pressures remain acute. Programme certainty has never mattered more in an industry with tightening deadlines and the appearance of the Gateways for Higher Risk Buildings, and successful delivery increasingly depends on multiple parties working together. Many of the industry’ s biggest challenges sit beyond any single organisation’ s control and they require genuine collaboration to solve.
As a result, there’ s growing recognition that success depends less on transferring risk and more on managing it well.
What real collaboration looks like
Collaboration doesn’ t mean abandoning commercial discipline or requiring bespoke alliance contracts. In practice, it comes down to a few principles:
• Allocating risk to the party best placed to manage it
• Involving contractors earlier in design
• Encouraging open communication
• Identifying issues before they become disputes
• Focusing on shared outcomes
Early Contractor Involvement under NEC contracts is a good example – bringing construction expertise in earlier improves buildability, surfaces issues sooner, and reduces costly surprises later.
None of this is new, but it’ s becoming increasingly important as collaboration can help to manage the increasing risks, and the industry should seek to make these changes, favouring balanced contracts over those that risk dump.
The commercial case for collaboration
Collaboration has long been framed as a cultural aspiration. Today, it’ s a commercial necessity. Clients want certainty, particularly when it comes to cost. Contractors want manageable risk. Supply chains want sustainable relationships and predictable workloads.
In an industry running on tight margins, adversarial behaviour is becoming an expensive habit. The most successful projects are the ones where teams address problems early and manage risk collectively, but the key is in the drafting of the contract itself to make it easy to understand and practical to use on the project.
Looking ahead
Construction’ s future success won’ t be determined by how effectively risk is pushed from one party to another. It will be determined by how effectively project teams identify, manage and mitigate risk together, supported by a well-drafted contract.
The industry has spent years talking about collaboration. The challenge now is ensuring procurement strategies, contracts and behaviours genuinely reflect it, rather than mimicking collaboration veiled in total risk transfer.
Contact Holmes & Hills specialist construction solicitors
If you need a construction solicitor to draft a balanced contract which allocates risk in a commercially sensitive manner, please reach out to Holmes & Hills Solicitors, call 0330 055 9863 or email britbuild @ holmes-hills. co. uk.
Issue 22 | 2026 7