BMBI releases May 2026 report

The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report, published by MRA Research in July, shows May 2026’s total like-for-like value sales (adjusted for trading days) were essentially flat, at -0.1% lower than May 2025.

Like-for-like value sales were down -1.2% compared to the previous 12-month period (June 2024 to May 2025), and with one less trading day in May 2026, year-on-year unadjusted value sales were -5.1% lower. Volumes were also down -10.5% while prices increased +6.1%.

Mike Rigby, managing director of MRA Research, says: “Builders’ Merchants’ sales are in the Doldrums: value sales are flat, prices up, volume down year on year while the Government sorts itself out.

“The parallels with the Doldrums, a real place, are uncanny. It’s a low-pressure area near the Equator where the prevailing breeze can disappear, making it extremely difficult to navigate. It has a reputation for stranding ships for weeks on end, causing them to run out of supplies. It’s not just about stagnant calm winds. Weather patterns can also be erratic moving quickly to violent thunder and electric storms.

“However, with Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, could this be the reset the industry needs – a fresh opportunity to get Britain building again?

“The new PM is saying, without fleshing out the detail, what the building industry wants to hear: a commitment to growth in every postcode; devolved powers over housing, infrastructure and regeneration projects; the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period. But we’ve been here before. Ex PM Starmer promised to build 1.5 million homes in five years, but that was pie in the sky. The major problems which have dogged that ambitious build programme have gone unresolved. We will have to wait for the ‘King of the North’ to get his feet under the table in Downing Street, to see whether he can translate his Manchesterism ideology on to the national stage.”