Positive building news
14 June 2023
The UK has at last been enjoying (or in some cases enduring) hot summer temperatures. And reinforcing the positive mood, there has also been some bright news from the Construction Leadership Council.
The CLC’s Product Availability working group reports that construction output has risen by 2.7 per cent since the start of the year despite earlier adverse weather and other factors such as strike action. So, given the talk in some quarters of a slowdown, that's a real positive to focus on.
The main area of growth over the past quarter has come from the repair and maintenance sector, but the commercial and civil engineering markets have also seen improvements, say co-chairs John Newcomb, CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation and Peter Caplehorn, CEO of the Construction Products Association.
They add that there is good availability of most building materials across the UK, with the exception of rock mineral insulation, which is now on allocation, but is expected to normalise soon with increased production capacity.
One caveat is that materials inflation continues to play a major part in increasing project costs. The end of the Help to Buy scheme and continued uncertainty over interest rates, and the impact on mortgage availability, is constraining housebuilding, as mentioned recently on the blog
The consensus for sector forecasts is that year on year demand will be down this year before picking up in in 2024. More broadly and with a general election looming in 2024, positive stimulus by government in any of these sectors may boost fortunes for the industry, the working group states.
Photo: Brett Jordan
