For a contractor, the cost review is dominated by insurance rather than utilities — most of the work happens on someone else’s site, drawing someone else’s power. What matters is that the cover matches how you actually work: employed versus subcontracted labour, the height and type of work, whether you handle hot works, and who owns the tools when they are stolen from a van at 3am.
Key takeaways
- Public liability limits are usually set by your main contractor or client, not by you.
- Labour-only subcontractors normally count for employers’ liability — this is the most common gap in the trade.
- Tools in vans are a specific, heavily conditioned cover with overnight requirements.
- Site waste needs a registered carrier and transfer notes, even for small volumes.
Energy for construction and trades contractors
Yard, workshop and stores — modest, but frequently overlooked entirely.
Most contractors think they have no energy contract worth reviewing because the work happens on client sites. In practice most have a yard, a workshop or a stores unit with a supply that has never been looked at, often sitting on deemed rates because the site was taken on without a change of tenancy being completed.
- Check whether your yard or unit is actually on a contract. Premises taken over without completing a change of tenancy default to deemed rates, commonly 33–45p per kWh against 23–30p on a negotiated fix.
- Workshop compressors, welding plant and heating are the loads that matter where they exist.
- Site power drawn under a temporary builder’s supply is a separate arrangement and worth checking on longer projects.
Waste for construction and trades contractors
Site waste, Duty of Care, and the skip that is not your only option.
Construction waste carries the same Duty of Care obligations as any other commercial waste: a registered carrier and a waste transfer note you must be able to produce. Volume varies hugely by job, which makes flexibility more valuable than a headline rate, and segregation genuinely pays because inert materials are much cheaper to dispose of than mixed loads.
- Segregate inert waste — hardcore, concrete, soil — from mixed construction waste. Mixed loads are priced at the highest common denominator.
- Plasterboard is a separate stream with its own requirements and cannot go into general construction waste.
- Hazardous materials, including anything containing asbestos, have their own consignment regime — never assume a general carrier will take them.
- Skips are not always cheapest. Wait-and-load and grab hire are often better for small volumes or where permits would be needed for a skip on the highway.
Insurance for construction and trades contractors
The centre of the whole cost picture for a contractor.
Contractors are underwritten on what work they do, at what height, with what materials, and with what labour arrangement. Get any of those wrong on the proposal and the policy may not respond. The two that cause most disputes are labour-only subcontractors — who normally count as employees for employers’ liability purposes regardless of how they invoice — and hot works, which frequently carry specific conditions.
- Public liability — commonly £2m, £5m or £10m, and usually specified by your client or main contractor rather than chosen by you.
- Employers’ liability — legally required, and it normally captures labour-only subcontractors. The test is the working relationship, not the invoice.
- Contractors’ all risks — cover for the works themselves while in progress.
- Tools and plant — including cover for tools left in a vehicle overnight, which carries specific and strictly applied conditions.
- Professional indemnity — needed for any design element, and design-and-build contracts almost always require it.
- Hot works conditions — welding, grinding and torch work commonly carry a permit requirement and a fire watch period.
The overnight tools condition is applied strictly
Most tools-in-transit policies exclude theft from an unattended vehicle overnight unless the tools are removed, or the vehicle is in a locked building or a secured compound. This is one of the most commonly declined claims in the trade, and it is declined on a condition the contractor had agreed to.
Broadband for construction and trades contractors
Office and yard connectivity, plus mobile data for the field.
The office and yard need a reliable connection for estimating, project management and increasingly cloud-based drawings and site photos. The field need is mobile data, and coverage on site is a practical constraint on any system that requires operatives to upload from a phone.
- Business fibre at the office or yard; upload speed matters if you are moving drawings and site photography.
- Check mobile coverage before committing to any site system that requires live upload from operatives.
- Consider a mobile data plan across the field team rather than relying on personal allowances, which is both cheaper at scale and cleaner for data protection.
Construction and trades contractors: frequently asked questions
Do labour-only subcontractors need to be on our employers’ liability?+
Almost always yes. The test is the working relationship rather than how someone invoices: if you direct and control the work, provide the materials and the tools, and they supply only their labour, they generally count as an employee for employers’ liability purposes. Getting this wrong is one of the most common and most expensive errors in the trade, because it is only discovered when someone is injured.
Are our tools covered if stolen from the van overnight?+
Usually only if you complied with the overnight condition, and those conditions are applied strictly. Most policies require tools to be removed from the vehicle overnight, or the vehicle to be inside a locked building or secure compound. This is one of the most frequently declined claims in construction, and it is declined on a term the contractor accepted at inception. Read the condition and work to it.
What public liability limit do we need?+
Whatever your client or main contractor specifies, which is usually the binding constraint. £2m is a common minimum for domestic work, £5m is standard on commercial sites, and £10m is frequently required for public sector or larger principal contractors. Check the contract before you renew rather than after you have won the job.
Last reviewed 3 September 2026. Price ranges are indicative market figures to benchmark against, not a quote.
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