Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
The latest figures from the Plumbing & Heating Merchant Index (PHMI) report, produced by MRA Research, show adjusted like-for-like value sales for May 2026 through specialist plumbing and heating merchants were up +1.3% compared to May 2025.
Like-for-like volume sales were down -8.0%, while prices increased +10.1% year-on-year. With one less trading day in May 2026, unadjusted value sales decreased -3.8% compared to May 2025. Unadjusted volumes fell -12.6% and prices increased +10.1%.
Mike Rigby, managing director of MRA Research, comments: “Sales through specialist plumbing and heating merchants are stuck in the Doldrums: value sales are weak, prices are rising and volumes are down year-on-year while the Government sorts itself out.
“The parallels between the UK economy and the Doldrums, a real place, are uncanny. The Doldrums is 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. And 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 due to take over the reins as Prime Minister mid-July, could this be the reset the industry needs – a fresh opportunity to get Britain building again and a shot in the arm for the building materials supply chain?
“The new Prime Minister is saying 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 and we’ve not seen the details, or a credible mechanism, or where the money or the people to build it all will come from. Ex PM Starmer promised to build 1.5 million homes in five years, and that turned out to be pie in the sky. The problems which dogged that ambitious build programme are still unresolved. We’ll have to wait for the ‘King of the North’ to get his feet under the table in Downing Street, to see what he’s made of, and whether he can translate his Manchesterism ideology into an engine to drive the growth of the UK economy.”
