Enol phosphinates and phosphonates can be readily prepared from simple lactams in high yields and are both stable and storable. Both these substrates can be employed successfully in homogeneous Suzuki-Miyaura and Stille cross-couplings protocols. Additionally, the phosphonate group can be immobilised on a phenol-on-polystyrene resin and utilised in a simple diversity linker strategy in which the coupled product is cleaved from the resin under Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling conditions.