A subdivision of Taylor Wimpey, the troubled housebuilder, has told its subcontractors that they must cut costs on all existing orders by 20 per cent. The demand is the most extreme example yet of how the scramble to cut costs by housebuilders is squeezing companies further down the supply chain. A letter from Taylor Wimpey subsidiary George Wimpey Bristol warned: “Unless this situation is taken extremely seriously and acted upon swiftly there is every possibility that sites will grind to a halt.”

“Never have the consequences of a lack of your co-operation been as potentially detrimental to our build and possibly like other developers, our very survival!”