A global survey by NEC Contracts suggests that, despite widespread agreement that trust is essential to project performance, many professionals still see the construction supply chain as fundamentally combative.
The study, titled “Trust, Contracts and Outcomes: A Global Study of Construction Supply Chain Relationships”, questioned more than 1,000 people working in the built environment across the UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Peru. According to NEC Contrac...
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ts, 61% of respondents said supply chain relationships in construction remain adversarial, while only 11% disagreed. The findings point to a sector that continues to struggle with entrenched commercial tensions even as it talks more openly about collaboration.
The survey also found that 68% of participants believed commercial and contractual pressures make delivery more difficult, and 75% said weak supply chain relationships can put business continuity at risk. NEC Contracts said the results indicate that improving culture will require more than rhetoric and will depend on structural change, including collaborative contracting.
That argument is echoed in other NEC materials, which present collaboration not as a soft management ideal but as a practical mechanism for improving risk management, early warning, cost control and delivery outcomes. The company has also linked collaboration with wider industry priorities such as digital adoption and sustainability, suggesting that future project success will depend on bringing those elements together rather than treating them separately.
The message has gained particular traction in the public sector. In a separate white paper, NEC Contracts argues that collaborative contracting can support government projects by encouraging trust between parties and allowing problems to be identified earlier. The company points to target cost arrangements and early warning provisions as tools that can improve predictability and reduce the likelihood of dispute.
The Environment Agency has already used NEC4 contracts for its £1.2 billion flood and coastal erosion risk management capital programme running from 2019 to 2027, working through a collaborative delivery framework with a group of major consultants and contractors. For NEC, such programmes are intended to show that cooperation can be embedded in procurement and delivery rather than left to goodwill alone.
The broader conclusion from the survey is that the industry may understand the value of trust, but still lacks the contractual and behavioural structures needed to support it at scale.
Source: Noah Wire Services
