IN SEPTEMBER, the Construction Leadership Council’s Product Availability working group reports building materials availability has returned to pre-covid levels.

Building Materials Availability

Mineral wool has come off allocation and returned to normal supply.  Looking ahead, a major supplier is investing £50m to increase capacity for glass mineral wool [Knauf Insulation] to support anticipated demand from works under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which must be completed by the end of 2024.

Due to the sharp fall in house building over the past year, brick stocks have recovered and availability is no longer a key issue. On the other hand, some concerns persist around the supply of semi-conductors particularly for certain electrical components, despite the increase in worldwide capacity.

RAAC Industry Response Group

The surveys of RAAC in public buildings are ongoing to assess any need to replace, repair or remediate those materials. The CLC has formed a RAAC industry response group to respond to this challenge and will share views on any supply chain concerns; though in early days, at this time the group has none about product availability.

Price inflation has stabilised from increases of over 5% a year ago to 1-2% currently. There are reports of more discounts in the market and some indicators show prices coming down. The price of timber, for example, continues to fall, along with some plastic and energy intensive products.

Falling prices are largely due to demand stagnation, particularly the ongoing decline in housebuilding over the last six months. Poor weather and strikes in July and the August holiday period also contributed to a slowdown in activity over the summer.

Although there are signs of improvement in some regions in September, the key economic drivers – inflation, increased cost of living and higher interest rates – will remain a significant challenge for construction output for the rest of the year.

With the availability and cost of financing options increasingly limited, commercial behaviour is likely to harden putting pressure on lower tiers and SME companies reducing cash-flow capacity and making liquidity a greater challenge. There is an increase in the number of insolvencies and administrations; this is an area the group will continue to monitor, it says.

The Product Availability Statement from the Construction Leadership Council’s Product Availability working group is led by John Newcomb, CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation and Peter Caplehorn, CEO of the Construction Products Association, as co-chairs.

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