The Conflict Avoidance Coalition has announced a new online interview examining how earlier intervention, collaboration and better commercial behaviour could help prevent construction disagreements from escalating into costly disputes. Taking place on Tuesday 28 July 2026 from 9:30am to 10:30am, the event will see Conflict Avoidance Coalition President Len Bunton interview Matthew Garratt, Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering and a member of the NEC Contract Board.
The discussion will focus on the Conflict Avoidance Pledge, Dalkia Engineering’s reasons for supporting the initiative and the connection between early dispute intervention, payment performance and cash-flow pressure across the UK construction industry.
The construction message is practical: disagreements over payment, change, programme responsibility and contractual entitlement become substantially harder to resolve once positions have hardened. The interview will consider how earlier engagement and more collaborative commercial behaviour could prevent those issues from becoming formal disputes.
Jump to: Event details | What this means | Payment and cash flow | Matthew Garratt | Dalkia and the Pledge | Industry impact | CAC Conference | FAQ
Conflict Avoidance Interview: Event Details
| Event Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Event | Conflict Avoidance Interview Series |
| Date | Tuesday 28 July 2026 |
| Time | 9:30am to 10:30am |
| Format | Online interview via Microsoft Teams |
| Interviewer | Len Bunton, President of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition |
| Guest | Matthew Garratt, Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering |
| Main themes | Conflict avoidance, collaboration, payment, cash flow and early intervention |
Join the Online Interview
The Conflict Avoidance interview can be accessed through Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 28 July 2026.
What the Conflict Avoidance Interview Means for UK Construction
Conflict avoidance is based on the principle that construction disagreements should be identified, discussed and addressed before they become entrenched contractual disputes. Construction projects regularly generate differences over payment valuations, variations, compensation events, design responsibility, extensions of time, loss and expense, defective work, access, information release and programme delay. The existence of a disagreement does not automatically mean a project relationship has failed. The greater risk appears when the parties allow the disagreement to remain unresolved while commercial and operational pressure continues to build.
Once significant sums are withheld, contractual notices accumulate and delivery teams become defensive, the opportunity for a proportionate project-level solution can narrow quickly. Formal adjudication, arbitration or litigation may then become necessary, but by that stage the parties may already have incurred management cost, legal expense, programme disruption and damage to the working relationship. The Conflict Avoidance Pledge encourages organisations to recognise this escalation risk and establish a culture in which problems are addressed earlier. This does not remove contractual rights or prevent legitimate claims. It promotes the use of timely communication, cooperation and intervention before formal dispute resolution becomes the only realistic route.
Why Payment and Cash Flow Will Be Central to the Discussion
Payment and cash flow remain among the most persistent sources of tension in UK construction. Specialist contractors and smaller suppliers frequently operate with limited working-capital reserves while paying labour, materials, plant, insurance and professional costs before receiving payment from parties further up the contracting chain. A disagreement over an application for payment, variation or compensation event can therefore become more than a contractual issue. Delayed certification or unresolved entitlement can affect whether a contractor can pay its own suppliers, retain skilled labour, procure materials or continue delivering the works without additional financial support.
This means that conflict avoidance can have a direct relationship with business continuity. Where commercial teams discuss disputed items early, clearly record the areas of agreement and isolate the genuinely contested elements, it may be possible to prevent one unresolved issue from obstructing the wider payment process. The interview is expected to consider how the Conflict Avoidance Pledge can support this type of behaviour and whether greater cooperation could help address wider problems with payment and cash flow across the construction supply chain.
Related LCM Intelligence
The event connects with London Construction Magazine’s coverage of the UK late-payment reforms and proposed construction retentions ban.
Commercial teams can also read LCM’s analysis of the cash-flow and contractual risks created by the transition away from construction retentions.
The financial consequences of unresolved claims and dispute escalation are examined further in LCM’s report on the FK Group collapse and £54.5 million facade supply-chain exposure.
Matthew Garratt’s Commercial and NEC Experience
Matthew Garratt is Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering and has around 30 years of experience across the UK engineering and construction industry. His previous senior commercial roles include work with Costain on the delivery of major UK infrastructure projects and with mechanical and electrical contractor NG Bailey.
Garratt is a chartered surveyor, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the NEC Contract Board. He joined the former NEC Panel in 2005 and has extensive experience in contract strategy, collaborative working and the commercial management of engineering and construction projects. That experience is relevant to the Conflict Avoidance Coalition discussion because effective conflict avoidance depends on more than good intentions. It also requires clear contract administration, timely notices, accurate records, effective communication and decision-making before a commercial issue begins affecting project delivery.
Why Dalkia Engineering Signed the Conflict Avoidance Pledge
Dalkia Engineering signed the Conflict Avoidance Pledge in 2024. During the interview, Garratt will discuss the contractor’s reasons for signing and supporting the initiative. The discussion will also consider the importance of collaboration and cooperation within the UK construction industry. These principles are particularly relevant to technical services and building engineering packages, where delivery can depend on close coordination between designers, principal contractors, specialist subcontractors, manufacturers, commissioning teams and client representatives.
Mechanical, electrical and technical-services packages can be exposed to late design information, access constraints, coordination changes, commissioning dependencies and programme compression. Where responsibility for those issues is unclear, the commercial consequences can spread rapidly across several organisations. A conflict-avoidance approach seeks to bring the relevant parties together while the project team still has the opportunity to agree facts, allocate actions and prevent the disagreement from disrupting the wider works.
What the Interview Is Expected to Cover
| Discussion Area | Construction Relevance |
|---|---|
| Purpose of the Conflict Avoidance Pledge | How signatories commit to identifying and addressing disagreements before they escalate. |
| Dalkia Engineering’s decision to sign | Why a major technical-services contractor considers conflict avoidance important to project delivery. |
| Payment and cash flow | How unresolved commercial issues can interrupt payments and increase financial pressure through the supply chain. |
| Early intervention | Why acting before positions become entrenched can protect time, cost and project relationships. |
| Collaboration and cooperation | How project culture and commercial behaviour influence whether disagreements are resolved or escalated. |
| Conflict Avoidance Conference 2026 | An introduction to the Coalition’s forthcoming London conference on 16 September 2026. |
What Conflict Avoidance Means for Construction Organisations
| Industry Group | Potential Benefit | Practical Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Clients and developers | Reduced risk of disputes disrupting programme, cost certainty and supply-chain confidence. | Create clear escalation routes and ensure project decisions are made without unnecessary delay. |
| Main contractors | Earlier resolution of subcontract, design, programme and payment disagreements. | Separate genuinely disputed amounts from sums that can be assessed and paid. |
| Specialist subcontractors | Greater opportunity to address entitlement and access issues before cash-flow pressure becomes critical. | Maintain accurate notices, programme records, instructions and evidence of completed work. |
| Consultants and designers | Faster clarification of design information, responsibility and technical decision-making. | Record assumptions, changes, approvals and unresolved technical risks clearly. |
| Commercial and legal teams | Reduced management time and legal expenditure where disagreements can be resolved before formal proceedings. | Intervene early while preserving contractual rights and required notices. |
Conflict Avoidance Does Not Replace Contract Administration
Collaboration should not be interpreted as an alternative to proper contract administration. Construction organisations must still understand their contractual obligations, issue required notices, maintain records, assess payments correctly and protect their legal rights.
The value of conflict avoidance is that these contractual processes can be accompanied by timely discussion and proportionate intervention. A project team does not need to ignore the contract to behave collaboratively. In many cases, clear and consistent contract administration can make early resolution easier because the parties have a better shared understanding of what happened and what the contract requires.
The strongest approach combines commercial discipline with a willingness to resolve issues. Weak records and delayed notices can make agreement more difficult, while aggressive administration without meaningful engagement can cause the relationship to deteriorate unnecessarily.
Conflict Avoidance Conference 2026 in London
The online interview will also highlight the forthcoming Conflict Avoidance Conference, which will take place in London on Wednesday 16 September 2026. The conference will be held at Plaisterers’ Hall, One London Wall, under the theme “Promoting Co-operation in Construction.”
The wider programme is expected to examine how clients, contractors, consultants and professional teams can build conflict-avoidance processes into procurement, contracts and live project delivery. Further information is available through the Conflict Avoidance Conference 2026 event page.
Who Should Attend the July Interview?
The interview is relevant to construction professionals involved in project delivery, commercial management, procurement, contract administration and dispute prevention. This includes construction clients, developers, project directors, commercial directors, quantity surveyors, contract managers, project managers, main contractors, specialist subcontractors, consultants, lawyers and professionals working with NEC and other standard-form construction contracts. The payment and cash-flow focus also makes the discussion relevant to smaller construction businesses that may be particularly exposed when valuations, variations or final accounts remain unresolved.
Evidence-Based Summary
The Conflict Avoidance Coalition will hold an online construction interview on Tuesday 28 July 2026 from 9:30am to 10:30am.
Coalition President Len Bunton will interview Matthew Garratt, Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering and a member of the NEC Contract Board.
The discussion will focus on the Conflict Avoidance Pledge, Dalkia Engineering’s reasons for becoming a signatory, collaborative working and the relationship between dispute avoidance, payment and cash flow.
The event will also highlight the Conflict Avoidance Conference taking place at Plaisterers’ Hall in London on 16 September 2026.
FAQ: Conflict Avoidance Interview on 28 July 2026
When is the Conflict Avoidance interview?
The online interview will take place on Tuesday 28 July 2026 from 9:30am to 10:30am.
Who will take part in the interview?
Conflict Avoidance Coalition President Len Bunton will interview Matthew Garratt, Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering.
What will the discussion cover?
The discussion will cover the Conflict Avoidance Pledge, Dalkia Engineering’s support for the initiative, collaboration, early intervention, construction payment and supply-chain cash flow.
How can construction professionals join the interview?
The event will be held online through Microsoft Teams. Attendees can use the joining link included in this article.
Who is Matthew Garratt?
Matthew Garratt is Commercial Director at Dalkia Engineering, a chartered surveyor, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the NEC Contract Board.
When did Dalkia sign the Conflict Avoidance Pledge?
Dalkia signed the Conflict Avoidance Pledge in 2024. The interview will explore the organisation’s reasons for signing and supporting the initiative.
What is the Conflict Avoidance Pledge?
The Conflict Avoidance Pledge encourages construction organisations to identify and address emerging disagreements early so that they do not unnecessarily escalate into formal disputes.
When is the Conflict Avoidance Conference 2026?
The Conflict Avoidance Conference will take place at Plaisterers’ Hall, One London Wall, London, on Wednesday 16 September 2026.
Source Context and Editorial Note
This London Construction Magazine event announcement is based on information published by the Conflict Avoidance Coalition about its interview series, the participation of Len Bunton and Matthew Garratt, Dalkia Engineering’s support for the Conflict Avoidance Pledge and the Conflict Avoidance Conference scheduled for September 2026.
The article is provided for construction industry information and event awareness. It does not provide legal, contractual, adjudication, payment, procurement, financial or dispute-resolution advice. Construction organisations should obtain project-specific professional advice and refer to the applicable contract before taking action in relation to a live disagreement or payment dispute.
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Expert Verification & Authorship: Mihai Chelmus
Founder, London Construction Magazine | Construction Testing & Investigation Specialist |
