NEWS EXTRA
HOPE SPRINGS FOR UK TRADESPEOPLE SAYS TRAVIS PERKINS SURVEY
Nearly 9 out of 10 tradespeople expect workloads to increase during 2021, according to a survey by Travis Perkins. BMJ digs down into the details.
A SURVEY OF over 1,600 tradespeople across the country by builders’ merchant Travis Perkins plc, has revealed that the vast majority are optimistic on their prospects for 2021.
Almost nine in ten (87%) of respondents, made up of builders, electricians, plumbers, joiners and other tradespeople, said that they believed workloads will increase or remain the same this year versus 2020, while more than a third (36%) expect their materials purchases to increase in the next two months.
The survey is the second full publication of Travis Perkins’ RMI Index; the first was published in August 2020.
Responses to the survey highlight the impact of the pandemic and restrictions on the types of domestic work undertaken with 34% reporting an increase in projects involving office builds and study conversions, as expectations rise of a future where homeworking is more commonplace.
Similarly, nearly a third (27%) saw an increase in garden landscaping work and 92% of respondents expect a greater impact on their work from COVID- 19 than from Brexit during 2021. Customers from across the group’s Travis Perkins, Keyline, CCF, Toolstation and Plumbing & Heating businesses were surveyed via email in January and asked to look ahead to the next two months. The responses represent a significant cross section of the UK market and span a wide variety of company sizes, from sole traders through to companies employing up to 100 staff. The majority (59%) are sole traders while four out of five employ no more than three people.
The vast majority expect domestic repairs and maintenance to be the key driver of their business during this period. Most
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expect workloads will either be unchanged in 2021 or up on 2020 although almost all believe that COVID-19 will have a greater impact on workloads during the remainder of the year than Brexit. On balance, UK tradespeople remain confident about future workloads. Although a large number (48%) anticipate static workloads over the next two months, just under one in five (19%) think that activity will actually decrease.
Brexit deal
The picture is brighter however when it comes to expectations for the year as a whole with 87% predicting that workloads will either increase (38%) or stay the same (49%) now that a Brexit deal has been reached and the COVID-19 vaccination programme is well underway.
The twin issues of Brexit and COVID-19 are far from equal however when it comes to assessing which will have the greater impact on workloads in 2021 with 92% pinpointing COVID-19 as a bigger issue than Brexit (8%).
The majority, 78%, expect most of the increased workloads to come from the repair, maintenance and improvement sector, with 14% anticipating growth in public sector work, 13% looking to benefit from new housing and 13% from commercial and industrial, although a mere 2% of respondents expect growth to come from infrastructure. Nick Roberts, CEO of Travis Perkins plc said: “As with our first survey, this report provides an insight into how the tradesmen and women up and down the country feel about their near-term trading prospects, as well as their longer-term assessment of the outlook for 2021. The contrast between the wider backdrop in
which this survey was undertaken and that of August’s report is stark – although August 2020 was anything but a “normal” period in the nation’s history, the country was still past the peak of the first COVID-19 wave, restrictions were beginning to be relaxed and thoughts were tentatively turning towards recovery and reunion. “Fast forward to January 2021 however, when we surveyed over 1600 respondents for this report, and it is clear that August’s hope of a return to normality was premature – we are now well into our third national lockdown, with most of us confined again to our homes during what has been a cold and wet period.
“On balance, UK tradespeople remain confident about future workloads and, although a large number believe that their workloads will remain broadly unchanged over the next two months, only a minority think that activity will actually decrease. The
picture is even brighter when it comes to expectations for the year as a whole with nearly nine out of ten respondents stating that they believe their workloads will either increase or stay the same in 2021 versus 2020.
“This report bears testament to the ability of the UK’s tradespeople to see through short-term headwinds and plan for the longer-term economic recovery. Challenges still remain, but the overarching picture from the tradespeople that we surveyed is one of cautious optimism. He continues: “The importance of the construction sector to the UK cannot be overstated – according to the latest ONS figures, it contributes £155 bn to the UK economy, 6% of total economic output and directly supports 2.2 million jobs the length and breadth of the country, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of other architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and plant hire providers whose livelihoods depend on it. “UK tradespeople are at the absolute heart of this eco-system and will play a key role in our economic recovery as the country looks to build cleaner, greener and better. Their demand for materials remains undiminished, their level of resilience high, and their optimism for the year ahead is reassuring.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2021
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