Yet another blow for the construction industry. It's baffling really, at a time we're building more than we ever have.

You've heard about the horrendous problems at Fletcher and, of course, Ebert has gone bust, and is in liquidation with about $ 34 million going down the proverbial.

Now the liquidators of Cranston Homes have confirmed tradies and other creditors are out of pocket to the tune of $3.6 million.

Leaky building claims scuppered Cranston, which had won prizes for House of the Year several times.

At the end of the day, even secured creditors like the banks are owed $190,000, but as the Herald puts it, the cupboard is bare.

The banks can wear it, but for little firms and one or two-man bands trying to build up a business this can be devastating.

It will be enough to topple some of them over, so you will get a domino effect.

And in the construction game, boom and bust, but an industry we desperately need to be functioning properly.

Maybe this is part of the reason we've now got Chinese companies coming in, no doubt with some shonky cheap labour waiver, to build houses, more than 600 of them at Orewa, north of Auckland.

There's something badly wrong here.

Anyone who's ever been in business knows you get a bit of bad debt,
so you keep an eye on those slow payers, put a cap on the credit.

But if you're a little firm trying to become a bigger firm, a hit from a big client going over can be enough to wipe you out.

These are the guys we need to be working for.

Back in 2001, Laila Harre was Commerce Minister and she changed the law to increase the amount employees could claim from a failed company.

There was talk then of creating some kind of fidelity fund, like an industry insurance scheme to protect unsecured creditors.

Yet so far there's no sign of it.

But something desperately needs to change.