THE MONTH
Construction bursts back into life in June
Building was the stand-out perform- er in June in economic terms, ac- cording to the monthly IHS Markit/ CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index.
Output increased in June and
forward orders stabilised after falling for three months, and the Index jumped to 55.3 in June, from 28.9 in May, having hit an unprec- edented low of 8 in April as the UK lockdown took hold.
Residential building was the best- performing area, while commercial work and civil engineering activity also returned to growth. New business volumes increased marginally although at a weaker rate, reflecting ongoing hesitancy among clients and longer lead-times to secure new contracts. Exactly 46% of the survey panel anticipate a rise in business activity, while 31% forecast a reduction, mostly due to concerns about the heath of the wider UK economic outlook. Severe supply chain disrup- tions continued to reflect stronger demand for materials and ongoing reports of constrained availability (especially plaster) resulted in an- other rise in purchasing costs. Duncan Brock, Group Director at the Chartered Institute of Procure- ment & Supply, said: “Only two months ago the construction sector produced the worst results in the history of the PMI, and there are still some potholes to navigate as Gov- ernment support for jobs is stripped away. Employment levels remain de- flated, with reports of redundancies, furloughed staff and a reluctance to boost staff numbers when new order levels remained so flat. But with a significant rise in the headline output number, it looks as though all the building blocks are there for the sector’s increasing health.”
Amongst the bounty announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on June 30 to get the economy moving again after the Covid-19 pandemic was £1.5bn this year for hospital maintenance, building, and the improvement of A&E capacity, £780m on school and college repair and upgrades in addition to the £1bn new 10-year school building programme, £100m on road repairs and£83m for maintenance of prisons and youth offender facilities.
The Prime Minister’s promise also includes £900m for a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the course of the
next two years, as well as £96m to accelerate investment in town centres and high streets through the Towns Fund this year. “Too many parts of this country have felt left behind, neglected, unloved, as though someone had taken a strategic decision that their fate did not matter as much as that of the metropolis,” he said. “This is a government that is wholly committed not just to defeating coronavirus but to using this crisis finally to tackle this country’s great unresolved challenges of the last three decades. To build the homes, to fix the NHS, to tackle the skills crisis,
NMBS sets date for 2022 event Following the coronavirus-fuelled
cancellation of this year’s event, independent builders merchant buying society NMBS has booked its next NMBS All-Industry Conference from16th to 19th June 2022, at the Hilton Sorrento Palace Hotel in Sorrento, Italy. NMBS managing director Chris Hayward, said: “We have agreed with the hotel to reschedule the Conference for 16th to 19th June 2022. Committing to our booking for 2022 shows our support for this great location and country.” Key Sponsors who will be joining NMBS at the 2022 Conference include Dickies,
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HiKOKI, Polypipe, Knauf Insulation, Marshalls, Marsh Industries and Worcester Bosch.
Hayward added: “We would also like to give our heartfelt thanks to those Sponsors who committed to carry their sponsorship over to the 2022 event. The majority of our Sponsors chose to do so, which we believe shows how important and valued the All-Industry Conference is as a key industry event.”
Boris and Sunak bestow post-pandemic building bonanza
to mend the indefensible gap in opportunity and productivity and connectivity between the regions of the UK. To unite and level up. “To that end we will build build build. Build back better, build back greener, build back faster and do that at the pace that this moment requires.” The spending bonanza was
increased on July 8 when Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced the Green Homes Grant, which will give hundreds of thousands of homeowners vouchers of up to £5,000 for energy-saving home improvements. The Treasury hopes this will support more than 100,000 jobs in the industry. Under the Green Homes Grant, the government will pay at least two-thirds of the cost of home improvements that save energy. The scheme will launch in September, with online applications for recommended energy efficiency measures, along with details of accredited local suppliers. Once one has provided a quote and the work is approved, the voucher is issued.
Polypipe to lose up to 250 jobs
Plastic drainage manufacturer Polypipe has announced plans for up to 250 redundancies as a result of the post-lockdown economic situation. The jobs rep- resent around 8% of the work- frce, though there are no plans to completely close any facilities. In a statement the company said the “regrettable but neces- sary steps to adjust our man- ning levels and cost base” are in response to the 24% year-on- year drop in revenue for the six months to June and the latest forecasts from the Construction Products Association, which show residential new build demand in 2021 is likely to be 20% lower.
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net July 2020
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