™
Working capital for
electrical and plumbing firms.
On a mechanical and electrical job the money goes out long before it comes back — cable, boilers and fittings up front, wages every Friday, a valuation weeks away and a retention held back after that. Short-term finance bridges those gaps, and on every product the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. For an incorporated electrical or plumbing business, it does one thing: short-term working capital to keep an install — and the cash flow around it — moving.
Few trades carry a cash-flow shape as lumpy as electrical and plumbing work. A domestic plumbing and heating company buys boilers and copper on the merchant’s 30-day terms while it waits 60 for a developer’s valuation; an electrical contractor funds a fortnight of first-fix labour before the first stage payment lands; an M&E firm has five per cent of every contract sitting in retention long after the snagging list is signed off. This page looks at how a Business Bridging Loan, Credicorp Flex or Credicorp Slice tends to be used to bridge those gaps, so you can picture the fit before you apply.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. That means no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance. When you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Why electrical and plumbing firms run short on cash
It is rarely about profit on the contract. It is about the timing of money in and money out — and in M&E work, that timing is brutal.
Materials and labour go out first
You cannot start most installs without spending. Wholesalers want paying for cable, consumer units, boilers, copper, fittings and fixings, often before the first application for payment is even raised. Test gear and hired access run by the week. Wages and CIS-deducted subcontractor payments fall due whether or not the client has paid you. By the time a job is genuinely under way, a serious sum is already tied up in stock on site.
Staged payments arrive slowly
Contract M&E work is paid in arrears, against valuations or applications for payment. You complete first fix, it gets assessed, a payment notice is issued, and then the clock runs — frequently 30, 45 or 60 days. Even with the Construction Act behind you, the cash for work you finished weeks ago lands well after you paid for the materials that went into it.
Retentions are held back — twice
On top of the wait, a slice of each payment — commonly around five per cent — is held as retention. Half is typically released at practical completion, the rest only after the defects-liability period, which can run a year or more. That is your margin, frozen, sometimes across several contracts at once.
One slow main contractor stalls the next job
Main contractors and developers do not always pay on time, and a single late certificate can leave you unable to fund the materials for the install that is meant to start on Monday. The work is there; the cash to begin it is stuck upstream. That is exactly the gap short-term finance is built to bridge.
The kinds of funding that fit an M&E business
Three plain-English shapes of short-term credit. The detail and the live terms sit with the lender — here is how each tends to be used on the tools.
A Business Bridging Loan — a fixed sum for a known job
A single lump sum into the company account, repaid over a short, fixed term. It suits a one-off, time-boxed gap you can name: a confirmed contract that needs a big wholesaler order before the first valuation, a deposit to secure a boiler batch or a switchgear package, or a piece of test kit you need on site to start. You know the figure, and you can see the staged payment that will clear it coming in.
Credicorp Flex — a line you draw on through a job
A revolving facility the company can dip into and repay as cash flow turns. For electrical and plumbing firms running several jobs at different stages — some in materials-heavy first-fix phases, others waiting on a final certificate — it smooths the peaks without taking out a fresh loan each time. You pay only for what you draw, not the whole limit.
Credicorp Slice — spread a single wholesaler bill
Got a chunky wholesaler or merchant invoice you would rather not pay in one hit? Slice settles it in full today and lets the company repay over a few weeks for a flat fee. The supplier relationship stays sweet, the materials are on site, and the cost is fixed before you commit.
We don’t publish rates or terms on this page on purpose — they live with the lender so you always see the current figures. Check the live product pages on credicorp.co.uk before you apply, and the funding tools can help you sketch the shape first.
The company borrows — not you
In a trade where the director often is the business, this is the part worth slowing down on.
Plenty of electrical and plumbing owners have been asked, by a bank or a broker, to put their home on the line for a working-capital facility. A personal guarantee or a charge over the family house turns a business cash-flow gap into a personal risk — and in a sector where a single disputed final account or a withheld retention can swing a year’s numbers, that is a heavy thing to sign.
Credicorp is built differently. The agreement is between Credicorp and your company — the Ltd, LLP or PLC that holds the contracts and the bank account. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The company stands on its own trading position, which is exactly how it should be when the money is funding the company’s work.
- No personal guarantee — the company is the borrower, full stop.
- No charge over your home — your house isn’t security for cable and boilers.
- No personal credit check on a director — the lender looks at the business, not your own file.
- Bodies corporate only — UK Ltd, LLP or PLC, never a sole trader or an individual.
This is the flip side of the lender’s model: because Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate, it sits outside consumer credit entirely under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001. The full position is on our lending & regulation page, and the company and trade-mark detail behind the group is on creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
How it can play out — a worked example
A made-up, clearly illustrative business — not a real customer — just to show the shape of the timing problem.
Picture a small electrical and plumbing contractor — call it a UK limited company with seven on the books and a couple of regular subcontract sparkies. It wins an M&E package on a small commercial fit-out: good margin, a main contractor it has worked with before, but the work needs a switchgear order, a run of cable and a batch of boilers and fittings before the first application for payment can even be submitted.
The wholesaler wants paying on 30-day terms. The hired access platform runs weekly. The gangs are paid every Friday. The main contractor’s first valuation, once submitted, will be assessed and then paid on 45-day terms — and five per cent of it will be held as retention. On paper the job is comfortably profitable; in the bank account, the company is funding roughly six weeks of outgoings before a penny comes back, while a separate retention from a contract finished last spring is still sitting unreleased.
Rather than turn the work down or lean on the director personally, the company bridges the gap with short-term finance against its own trading position — covering the materials and the early labour — and repays as the staged payments arrive. The retention catches up later, on its own timetable, without having held up the next contract. Same job, same margin; the difference is simply that the cash was there when the work needed it. This is a made-up illustration to show the fit, not a quote — the figures and the right product for a situation like this are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Electrical & plumbing funding — common questions
The questions M&E owners ask most. For anything beyond these, the lender’s team can help.
Can my electrical or plumbing company borrow without a personal guarantee from the director?
Yes. Credicorp lends to the company — a UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to the director who signs. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The agreement sits between Credicorp and your business.
We need to buy cable, boilers and fittings before the first valuation is paid. Can funding cover that?
That is one of the most common reasons mechanical and electrical companies look at short-term finance. A Business Bridging Loan or Credicorp Slice can cover a wholesaler order now, so the install can start, with repayment timed around the staged payments coming in. Specifics are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Does retention money held back by a main contractor count against us?
Retentions are a normal part of M&E cash flow — a slice of each payment held back until practical completion and the end of the defects period. Credicorp looks at the company as a whole rather than securing against any one retention, so money owed but not yet released does not have to stall your next contract.
Are you a bank, and is this regulated consumer credit?
No. Credicorp is an exempt business lender, not a bank and not a consumer-credit firm. It lends only to bodies corporate under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, so this is business credit, not a regulated consumer credit agreement. It is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name.
We work as a subcontractor under a main contractor — can we still use this?
Yes, as long as you trade through a UK limited company, LLP or PLC. Electrical and plumbing subcontractors often feel the squeeze hardest — paying for labour and materials weeks before a main contractor settles a valuation — so short-term working capital can be just as useful down the chain as at the top.
Where do I actually apply?
This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications. Applying, drawing down and managing the account all happen on the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. You can compare the products and start an application there.
More general answers live on the Creditcorp FAQ, the learn hub digs into the cash-flow basics, and the how-it-works overview walks through the whole journey from first look to funds in the bank.
Related sectors
If your work overlaps these trades, their pages may fit the cash-flow shape too.
- Construction & trades — the main contractors you sit under, carrying the same materials-up-front and retention squeeze.
- Property & lettings — the developers and landlords whose fit-outs and refurbishments you wire and pipe.
- Landscaping & grounds — another site-based trade buying materials ahead of staged, weather-dependent payments.
Or head back to the full industries overview to see every sector. For company, trade-mark and legal detail, the group site is creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Keep the install moving
Whatever the stage you’re funding, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.