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Social landlords face development delays from ‘unprecedented’ construction material shortages

Housing associations and local authorities are grappling with soaring prices and dwindling supplies of construction materials as Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic impact global supply chains.

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Brexit, coronavirus and the Suez Canal blockage have led to construction material shortages and price rises (picture: Getty)
Brexit, coronavirus and the Suez Canal blockage have led to construction material shortages and price rises (picture: Getty)
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Housing associations and local authorities are grappling with soaring prices and dwindling supplies of construction materials as Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic impact global supply chains #UKhousing

Inside Housing has spoken to social landlords and construction experts who have reported widespread shortages and price increases on vital products for housing development, such as timber and steel. In some cases, associations have said that this is causing as much as a 10-week delay on the completion of schemes.

Gerraint Oakley, executive director of growth and development at Platform Housing Group, told Inside Housing: “Brexit and COVID-19 have had a huge impact and to a lesser extent the Suez Canal blockage.”

Mr Oakley said Platform, one of the UK’s biggest developers of social housing, has seen cost inflation over the past two years, which the association expects to continue. “Tender prices will rise by 4% to 4.5% every year for the next three years,” he explained.

Ali Bennett, development director at 7,000-home Raven Housing Trust, said: “I’ve not seen a shortage of this magnitude.

“We have all seen shortages of various products before, but this is certainly unprecedented in scale – it’s not something I’ve seen in my career.”

Ms Bennett said the housing association is currently seeing average delay on its sites of roughly 10 weeks due to shortages of flat entrance doors, window boards and door linings.


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She continued: “Talking to suppliers and those who are buying, most of them are optimistic to see it start settling down by Q4 [quarter four] this year.

“But it is an international issue, so as other economies come out of things, we may see that impacting and dragging on a bit further.”

Members of Direct Works, which represents local authorities and housing associations with direct labour organisations, also told Inside Housing of widespread reports of material shortages from its members, including personal protective equipment, plaster, roof tiles and all metal products .

Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association (CPA), also said high levels of demand are likely to last until at least the end of the year.

He said: “The main reason that construction products have had extended lead times and sharp price rises is that construction demand has recovered so sharply since the initial lockdown.

“Total construction output in March was already higher than pre-COVID and, in some particular sectors, output is double-digit higher than pre-COVID.”

Mr Francis said the UK’s construction’s fast recovery has been prompted by policies such as the Help to Buy extension and the stamp duty holiday. But construction has seen a sharp rebound across the globe, meaning internationally traded construction products have seen the biggest price rises.

According to the CPA, copper, steel, timber, plastics and polymers have seen some of the sharpest price rises over the year. Mr Francis added that the cost of sending a container from China to the UK has soared from $1,500 in summer 2020 to $8,300 at the start of May.

Jonathan Layzell, executive director of development at Stonewater, said the landlord’s stress-testing for a no-deal Brexit had partially prepared it for supply chain disruption, but the impact from the pandemic was more difficult to anticipate.

He said: “We had done a lot of work around preparing for Brexit, but we had not done anything in preparation for COVID-19 or a similar pandemic. Preparations that we made for a no-deal or disorderly Brexit stood us in good stead.”

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