The death knell for the Construction Confederation was sounded this week after it emerged that its last member, the Scottish Building Federation, was also leaving the group

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association and the National Federation of Builders both handed in their notices to quit the 12-year-old organisation just before Christmas, leaving the Scottish group as the only remaining member.

The SBF’s resignation will mean that all three groups will leave the CC at the end of the year.

From 2010 the group will have no members. The Major Contractors Group and the National Contractors Federation left last year to set up the UK Contractors Group (UKCG), headed by Stephen Ratcliffe, the former CC chief executive. This organisation was launched in the summer. A sixth group, the British Woodworking Federation, also decided to quit last summer.

Ratcliffe was replaced at the CC by executive chairman Manus Adamson, who was chairman in 2001 and is now working at the organisation two days a week.

I don’t totally understand why they had to break away

Manus Adamson, Construction Confederation

Adamson said it was not his job to persuade groups that had resigned to change their minds and that he would continue working with the three remaining groups – whose notice period lasts 12 months – on normal CC business until they leave.

Adamson admitted he was disappointed that the industry representation was now facing more fragmentation.

He said: “I don’t totally understand why they had to break away. I’ll be interested to see where they are in five years’ time.”

It has also emerged that about half a dozen full-time members of staff at the CC’s office on Tufton Street in central London lost their jobs at the end of last year as part of a cost-cutting exercise.