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The contract is the project – it’s time we treated it that way
REKHA THAWRANI OBE GLOBAL DIRECTOR, NEC CONTRACTS
The tools we use to manage modern construction projects have transformed beyond recognition. The contracts governing them largely haven’t. REKHA THAWRANI OBE, GLOBAL DIRECTOR of NEC CONTRACTS, explains why that gap is now closing – and what it means for project delivery.
Ask any experienced construction manager where projects go wrong, and the answer rarely starts with the build. It starts with the contract – misunderstood obligations, incompatible clauses nobody caught, a compensation event procedure nobody followed because nobody was quite sure how. By the time the problem surfaces on site, the contractual clock has already been running in the wrong direction for weeks.
This is the quiet inefficiency at the heart of UK construction. Not dramatic failures, routine ones. And they are, to a significant extent, avoidable.
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At NEC Contracts, we’ve spent over three decades building a contractual framework designed to prevent these outcomes. NEC4 contracts require collaborative behaviour – not as an aspiration, but as a contractual obligation. Every party must act in a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation. Early warning is mandatory. Programme management is embedded. Change is managed through a clear, time-bound compensation event process that keeps projects moving rather than descending into dispute.
The results are well documented. NEC Contracts has been used to deliver over £100 billion worth of works globally under NEC3, with NEC4 now the current standard across major UK programmes. National Highways, the Ministry of Defence, Transport for London, and many UK local authorities managing infrastructure programmes use NEC4 as their standard. The UK government’s Construction Playbook mandates it for public sector projects. This is not a niche contracting philosophy, it is the backbone of UK public infrastructure delivery.
“The contract is only as good as the team’s ability to use it. That’s the gap we’ve consistently seen – and it’s the gap NEC Digital was built to close.”
REKHA THAWRANI OBE, NEC CONTRACTS
Where the gap lies
Yet adoption remains uneven, and performance under NEC contracts varies considerably. Our own research, Transforming Construction: Smarter, Greener, Together (2025), found that 43% of industry professionals identify training as the primary barrier to wider collaborative contracting adoption. The contract exists and the will is there – 82% of professionals support broader adoption. But the capability to implement it correctly and consistently, across an entire supply chain, is what too many organisations still lack.
The practical consequence is familiar to anyone managing a significant NEC programme. Compensation events raised too late, or not at all. Early warnings used as blame mechanisms rather than problem-solving tools. Programme requirements treated as optional rather than central. Subcontractors working to different versions of contract data. The framework is sound; the implementation is inconsistent.
Alongside training capability, there is a second, less-discussed problem: the drafting process itself. Most NEC contracts are still drafted in Word, emailed between stakeholders, manually clause-checked, and assembled without any automatic verification that the options selected are compatible with each other. For a contract type built on precision and clarity, this is a significant vulnerability. Errors introduced during drafting don't announce themselves. They surface when it matters most.
A different approach to drafting
In November 2025, NEC Contracts launched NEC Digital – a subscription-based online contract drafting platform built specifically around the NEC4 suite. It is the first genuinely digital approach to NEC contract creation, and it addresses the drafting problem directly.
The platform guides users through the entire drafting process with contextual support at each stage. Its side-by-side Clause Navigator allows users to view options and relevant clauses simultaneously, making what has historically been a reference-heavy process intuitive and efficient. Intelligent clause compatibility checking automatically prevents the selection of incompatible options – the kind of error that currently has to be caught manually or isn’t caught at all.
All NEC4 main options A to F are available, alongside the full range of secondary options, automatic dispute clause pairing (W1–W3), and an organisational Z clause library built from previously drafted contracts.
Critically, collaboration is built into the platform rather than bolted on. Multiple stakeholders – procurement, commercial, legal, the client – can work on the same document, with robust permission controls maintaining document integrity throughout. During tender, bidders access a secure environment via a simple link, with full visibility of contractor-selected clauses and parameters. The contract that goes to site is the contract everyone agreed to, not a version that drifted through email chains.
For project managers and commercial teams on complex programmes, the practical benefit is significant: less time spent on manual checking, fewer errors reaching execution, and a clear audit trail throughout. For organisations managing multiple concurrent NEC contracts – frameworks, term contracts, and project-specific agreements – the ability to build a Z clause library from existing work and apply it consistently is a meaningful efficiency gain.
Training and digital tools: complementary, not competing
NEC Digital does not replace NEC Training: the two work together. The platform embeds guidance at the point of need – contextual support during drafting, with links to learning resources when deeper insight is required. This means less experienced team members can contribute productively from the outset, while training investment pays dividends faster because knowledge is applied to live work rather than absorbed in a classroom and forgotten.
“82% of construction professionals support wider adoption of collaborative contracts. The question has never been whether. It’s always been how.”
REKHA THAWRANI OBE, NEC CONTRACTS
NEC Training, delivered by recognised NEC experts, provides the structured capability that makes collaborative contracting genuinely effective rather than merely contractually required. Courses cover the full NEC4 suite – Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC); Professional Services Contract (PSC); Term Service Contract (TSC); and Facilities Management Contract (FMC) – with clear progression from introductory to advanced accreditation. Bespoke in-house programmes are available for organisations looking to build consistent NEC capability across their teams and supply chains.
For organisations benchmarking against the Construction Playbook’s digital expectations, the combination of NEC Digital for drafting accuracy and NEC Training for implementation capability provides a credible, practical route to compliance.
The case for acting now
The direction of travel is set. The Construction Playbook is explicit about digital contract management. Government clients are increasingly asking what their supply chain's digital contracting capability looks like. The organisations that build that capability now – in their people and their processes – will be better positioned on every programme that follows.
The contract is the project. When it is drafted correctly, understood fully, and managed consistently, collaborative contracting delivers what it promises: better outcomes, fewer disputes, fairer treatment of the supply chain, and more predictable delivery. NEC4, NEC Digital and NEC Training are the practical means to get there.
REKHA THAWRANI OBE is GLOBAL DIRECTOR at NEC CONTRACTS. NEC Contracts' industry research report, Transforming Construction: Smarter, Greener, Together, is available to download at neccontract.com/research
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