Yes under the JCT forms: the employer holds retention as trustee for the contractor, and a court will order the money placed in a separate designated trust account on the contractor's request, but the protection is lost if the contractor acts too late, because retention that is never set aside ranks behind a bank charge on the employer's insolvency, as MacJordan v Brookmount Erostin shows

Yes under the JCT forms. The employer holds the retention as trustee for the contractor, and a court will order the money placed in a separate designated trust account on the contractor's request. In Wates Construction (London) Ltd v Franthom Property Ltd the Court of Appeal upheld an injunction to that effect, holding that the employer's rights of deduction left it a trustee, not a beneficiary, that using the retention as working capital would breach the trust, and that deleting the separate-account clause did not remove the duty. Finnegan Ltd v Ford Sellar Morris Developments Ltd held there is no time limit on the request, and Bodill and Sons (Contractors) Ltd v Harmail Singh Mattu allowed the employer a reasonable time, two to three weeks, to open a properly designated trust account. The protection is lost if the contractor acts too late: in MacJordan Construction Ltd v Brookmount Erostin Ltd retention that had never been set aside ranked behind a bank's floating charge on the employer's insolvency, and the contractor could not recover it. Reference to holding retention on trust is peculiar to the JCT forms; the ICE Editions, GC/Works/1 and the Engineering and Construction Contract impose no separate-account duty.