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Peter Caplehorn, director of the Construction Products Association, has written on the Association’s behalf to the Chancellor of the Exchequer ahead of next month’s Budget, stressing the importance of the construction and manufacturing sectors in helping to enable and support the country’s long-term productivity and economic growth.
The letter points out that approximately 75% of all construction products used in the UK are manufactured here, meaning the industry underpins nearly every construction project in the country. Construction product manufacturing accounts for 11% of total UK manufacturing and a third of all UK construction turnover – a £68.6 billion industry of 27,500 companies employing 407,000 people.
With the CPA now forecasting that house building will not even return to 2022 levels until at least 2028 and to pre-pandemic levels until 2029/30, the letter stresses that a positive government stimulus is urgently required to enable house building demand in the UK’s largest construction sector.
The CPA’s suggestions cover: Building Safety, Housing – both the new build and the RMI sectors, Infrastructure Delivery, and Investment, Productivity and the Regulatory Environment.
Professor Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, said: “Construction has already lost more than 11,000 construction firms since the start of 2023, and given the current low levels of house building and home improvement, we expect construction insolvencies to accelerate in 2026. A new positive, time-limited stimulus for house building demand is urgently needed from the government – particularly for first-time buyers – before insolvencies further damage skills and capacity throughout the construction supply chain, including architects, builders’ merchants and product manufacturers, as well as house builders and specialist contractors. Without these firms and their critical skills and capacity, any sustained recovery in house building will be more difficult, slower, and more expensive over the course of this Parliament.”
The full letter in available HERE
