Constructionline Cost for Subcontractors: What You'll Actually Pay in 2026

Constructionline annual membership for subcontractors starts from £219 per year for Bronze tier on the lowest turnover band, but your actual cost depends on which of 15 turnover bands you fall into and which tier your buyer requires. New members pay a one-off joining fee on top of the year-one annual fee, calculated from the same turnover band. SSIP via Once For All Health & Safety is now bundled into every paid tier at no extra charge, which means you don't need a separate SSIP scheme. Gold is the tier that includes Common Assessment Standard (CAS) desktop certification, which most main contractors and public-sector buyers now require following PPN 03/24.

If a main contractor has told you to "get on Constructionline" and you're trying to work out what it will actually cost your business, this guide breaks down the real Constructionline cost for subcontractors in 2026 — by tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and by turnover band — and explains why the headline annual fee isn't the whole story.

Constructionline doesn't publish a full price grid on its website. The fee depends on three things: which tier you pick, which turnover band you fall into, and whether it's your first year (a one-off joining fee applies). Below we explain how those three levers combine, what the published starting price covers, and where to get your specific quote.

How does Constructionline pricing actually work?

Constructionline pricing for subcontractors is built around three variables stacked together. Understanding the structure matters more than chasing a single headline number, because the same tier costs different firms different amounts.

The first variable is your annual turnover band. Constructionline's sign-up wizard asks you to pick from 15 bands, starting at £0–£74,999 and stepping up through £75k–£99,999, £100k–£199,999, and so on to £50 million and above (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships page). Your band determines where your fee sits inside each tier's range. A sole trader on £60,000 turnover and a £4m M&E contractor pay very different amounts for the same Bronze badge.

The second variable is your membership tier — Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Each tier adds an assessment layer on top of the one below it, so the price rises with the depth of the check. Bronze is a simplified question set covering insurance and SSIP. Silver adds corporate and professional standing checks. Gold adds the Common Assessment Standard (desktop). Platinum adds site-based CAS verification.

The third variable is whether you're a new member. Constructionline's own supplier FAQs confirm that "there is a one-off joining fee for new members based on your turnover band. From the second year of membership onwards, suppliers will only pay the annual membership fee" (Constructionline supplier FAQs, checked 08/06/2026). In other words, year one is structurally more expensive than year two.

What is the cheapest Constructionline membership?

The cheapest paid Constructionline membership is Bronze, on the lowest turnover band. Constructionline's published floor is "annual membership starts from as little as £219 a year" (Constructionline supplier FAQs, checked 08/06/2026, excluding VAT and excluding any first-year joining fee). That £219 figure assumes you fall in the smallest turnover band and you only need the Bronze tier.

Bronze is the entry-level paid tier and is designed for subcontractors whose main contractor or buyer just wants confirmation that your insurance is current and you hold an SSIP. According to the Constructionline sub-contractor memberships page, Bronze includes secure data storage, a searchable supplier profile, verified membership status, the Once For All Health & Safety SSIP, and Marketplace access (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships, checked 08/06/2026).

The headline figure does not include VAT and does not include the new-member joining fee, both of which add to your actual year-one outlay. The published prices on the sub-contractor page also carry the standard footnote "Prices do not include VAT."

How much does Constructionline Silver cost?

Constructionline does not publish a separate Silver price line, because Silver — like Bronze and Gold — is quoted against your turnover band when you sign up. What Silver adds for the extra fee is the Corporate & Professional Standing assessment, on top of everything in Bronze. That includes things like financial standing checks, anti-bribery, modern slavery, environmental management and equal opportunities (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships, checked 08/06/2026).

In practice, Silver is the tier you pay for when a buyer needs more than just a health-and-safety tick but doesn't yet require the full Common Assessment Standard. If your buyer is asking for evidence of insurance, SSIP and financial / governance information, Silver is usually the right tier to quote against — but it is not the tier that gets you into Build UK's CAS-aligned procurement lists.

For a feature-by-feature view of what Silver includes versus the tiers either side of it, see our Constructionline Gold vs Silver vs Bronze guide.

How much does Constructionline Gold cost?

Gold is where the price step is most noticeable for small subcontractors, because Gold is the tier that includes a Common Assessment Standard (desktop) certification. Build UK lists Constructionline Gold as a CAS desktop assessment and Constructionline Platinum as a CAS site-based assessment (Build UK Common Assessment Standard — Recognised Assessment Bodies, checked 08/06/2026). That CAS-aligned assessment is what most main contractors and many public-sector buyers are now asking for, since PPN 03/24 directs central government and wider public-sector bodies to use CAS to pre-qualify suppliers.

Gold includes everything in Silver plus the CAS-aligned assessment and, per Constructionline, the new Building Safety Act Assessments module (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships, checked 08/06/2026). The exact Gold annual fee for your business is generated by the same turnover-band wizard, so a sole trader with £80k turnover will see a meaningfully lower Gold quote than a £5m subcontractor.

What about Platinum?

Platinum is Constructionline's top tier. Build UK records it as the site-based Common Assessment Standard certification through Constructionline — the same CAS framework as Gold, but with a physical site verification element on top (Build UK CAS recognised bodies, checked 08/06/2026). Platinum is typically only required where a specific buyer asks for site-based CAS, and it carries a higher fee than Gold. Most small subcontractors don't need Platinum and shouldn't pay for it unless a contract specifically calls for it.

The joining fee catch in year one

Constructionline's own supplier FAQs are explicit: "There is a one-off joining fee for new members based on your turnover band. From the second year of membership onwards, suppliers will only pay the annual membership fee" (Constructionline supplier FAQs, checked 08/06/2026).

That means your year-one cost is structurally higher than your renewal cost, and the gap is bigger the higher your turnover band. When you compare Constructionline against CHAS or SafeContractor on a like-for-like basis, you should compare year-two annual fees if you're modelling steady-state cost, but year-one all-in if you're modelling the cash you have to find this quarter. Renewal-deadline planning matters here — see our guide to accreditation renewal deadlines for how to avoid paying for two overlapping schemes by accident.

SSIP is now bundled at every tier

One genuinely useful change worth flagging: SSIP through Once For All Health & Safety is now bundled into every paid Constructionline tier as standard. The Constructionline SSIP page states that "All Constructionline's paid memberships come with SSIP through Once For All Health & Safety" (Constructionline — SSIP, checked 08/06/2026). The sub-contractor memberships page repeats the same point: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum all carry the SSIP badge in their feature lists.

In practical terms, if your buyer just needs to see an SSIP, you don't need to buy a separate SSIP scheme on top of Constructionline. The bundled assessment is already SSIP-recognised, which means it benefits from SSIP Deem to Satisfy mutual recognition across the other SSIP-member schemes — explained in more depth in our SSIP mutual recognition guide.

How does Constructionline cost compare to CHAS and SafeContractor?

The three big subcontractor accreditations are priced on different bases, which makes a clean comparison hard. The table below summarises what you're being charged for in each case — not a single £ figure, because all three vendors quote against turnover band.

Scheme	Pricing basis	One-off joining fee?	SSIP included?	CAS-aligned tier available?
Constructionline	Annual fee by tier × turnover band	Yes, year one only (source)	Yes, all paid tiers (source)	Yes — Gold (desktop), Platinum (site-based) (Build UK)
CHAS	Annual fee by package × turnover band	Varies by package	Yes, on SSIP-bearing packages	Yes — CHAS Elite
SafeContractor	Annual fee, broadly by company size	No equivalent published	Yes (SSIP scheme)	Indirect — via the wider Alcumus group

For the full cost breakdown on the other two schemes, see our matching pages on CHAS cost and SafeContractor cost. For a feature-by-feature comparison rather than a price comparison, see CHAS vs SafeContractor vs Constructionline.

What's not included in your Constructionline fee?

A few costs sit outside the headline annual fee and are worth budgeting for separately.

VAT. Constructionline's sub-contractor memberships page states clearly that prices do not include VAT (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships, checked 08/06/2026). Add 20% to whatever the wizard quotes you if you're not VAT-registered or can't reclaim.

Your own time preparing evidence. The annual fee buys the assessment slot, not the documents. For the documents you'll need to upload — insurance certificates, RAMS examples, policies, training matrix and so on — see our CHAS documents checklist, which covers the same evidence types used across the major schemes.

Other accreditations your buyers may still ask for. Constructionline Gold meets the Common Assessment Standard, but some main contractors still maintain their own bespoke pre-qualification questionnaires, and some public-sector buyers require additional information beyond CAS. The accreditation scheme you pay for does not always close the gate on every buyer's request.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is Constructionline per year for a small subcontractor?

Constructionline's published floor price is "from as little as £219 a year" for the lowest tier on the lowest turnover band (Constructionline supplier FAQs, checked 08/06/2026), excluding VAT and excluding any year-one joining fee. Your actual price depends on which of the 15 turnover bands you fall into and which tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) your buyer requires.

Is Constructionline Bronze SSIP-approved?

Yes. Constructionline now bundles Once For All Health & Safety SSIP into every paid tier, including Bronze (Constructionline SSIP page, checked 08/06/2026). The older claim that Bronze isn't SSIP-recognised is out of date — re-check before assuming you need a separate SSIP scheme on top.

Why does Constructionline Gold cost more than Bronze?

Gold includes everything in Bronze and Silver, plus the Common Assessment Standard (desktop) certification and the Building Safety Act Assessments module (Constructionline sub-contractor memberships page, checked 08/06/2026). The CAS assessment is a deeper, audited pre-qualification, which is why Gold sits on a higher fee curve than Bronze across every turnover band.

Is there a joining fee for Constructionline?

Yes, but only in year one. Constructionline's supplier FAQs state that new members pay a one-off joining fee based on their turnover band, and from year two onwards only the annual fee applies (Constructionline supplier FAQs, checked 08/06/2026). Budget the joining fee on top of your year-one annual fee.

Where can I see the full Constructionline price list?

Constructionline does not publish a full Bronze/Silver/Gold price-by-band grid on its public website. The exact fee for your business is generated by entering your turnover band into the sign-up wizard on the Constructionline sub-contractor memberships page. We've deliberately not invented per-band figures here — if you see them quoted elsewhere without a source, treat them with caution.

(Constructionline supplier FAQs — "from £219/year" and one-off joining fee, checked 08/06/2026)