ABSTRACT
Originally, under English law, when a contractor contracted with an employer for a fi xed price, the contractor was not due any payment until the whole of the works had been completed, at which time the contractor was due full payment of that fi xed price. In earlier times this may have worked and still does on very small projects but when one is dealing with large infrastructure projects, or commercial building projects that can last many months and even years, cash fl ow becomes the issue and, in order to provide cash fl ow to the contractor, the original concept of no payment until completion was modifi ed by agreement between the parties to allow for interim payments to be made as the work progressed and culminating in a fi nal payment at completion.
