The construction industry would suffer fewer insolvencies – saving the industry and wider community many millions of dollars – if a builder’s liability was capped at a multiple of their profit margin, outgoing Roberts Co executive chairman Alison Mirams says.

Rather than carrying half – or even all – liability for a commercial contract, as they typically do under fixed-price contracts that leave builders vulnerable to sharply rising costs, limiting their losses and passing on more of it to developers would keep more builders in business, Ms Mirams said on Thursday.