Blogs

Excuse my French, but my first thought on reading the headline in The Times today was “WTF?”

Maybe it’s a hangover from the back-to-school days, but September always strikes me as a good time to start things afresh.

All the talk about hung Parliaments has made smile. Maybe I'm missing the point, but if there is no clear majority it means the leading political parties will have to pull together, talk, work out a solution - maybe even work as a team.

Whilst the housing market remains depressed, many homeowners may well opt to improve their property rather than to move house.

I don't think that anyone can now be in denial about the upsurge in house-building and its positive effect on builders merchants. But this welcome trend is not without its downside, as increasingly long delivery times for traditional building materials are being reported by some suppliers. Clay bricks are one case in point, as demand…

Yet again, the media is full of stories about how construction activity has slowed and how construction is acting as a brake on the expansion of the economy.

Installers and builders are always looking at ways to save their pennies, so will often shop around for the best deal. So how do merchants increase customer engagement to keep their customers coming back?

Most people know that the timber industry is about more than just a man in a lumber jack shirt and an axe in his hand! However, the sad reality is that this might be the only image that young people have of the industry.

The Government has pledged to invest £100bn in the UK's infrastructure over the next five years. However, with the November Spending Review looming, how sustainable is this investment given Chancellor George Osborne's need to consolidate £20bn of debt in his 'fixing the economy' strategy.

Stephen Hawking recently revealed his career 'Plan B'. Had a life in theoretical physics not worked out, he would have joined the Civil Service. UK Government's loss may have been the world's gain, but are his services still needed to sort out the energy efficiency policy mess we find ourselves in? Our view is below;…