NEWS EXTRA BMF ROCKS UP IN LONDON
The BMF held its London & South East Regional Meeting at the iconic Roca London Gallery in London on February 24.
THE LATEST BMF London & South East meeting covered a wide range of topics including an update on the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion to Greater London and an insight into the current economic crisis. BMF CEO, John Newcomb began the meeting by highlighting the growth of the trade associa-tion. “We’ve added 100 members since 2021 and we now have 870 members which include 443 merchants, 273 suppliers and 154 service, associates and distributors. Made up of 231,000 industry employees, we are the only trade association that represents building materials dis-tributors. We’ve started to position the BMF away from being purely based for merchants to being a trade association for building materials distributors. We should be proud of the size of our sector and how the sector continues to grow,” he said. As the first key speaker at the meeting, BMF policy & public affairs manager, Brett Amphlett provided an update on the Mayor of London’s decision to expand the ULEZ and the implications this decision will have on the sector.
Amphlett said: “The Mayor of London has decided to expand the ULEZ to cover the en- tirety of Greater London from August 29. At present, the ULEZ only applies to central and inner London boroughs. In March 2022, the Mayor announced his intention to expand the ULEZ and - following a public consultation last summer - has decided it will apply across all 33 London bor-oughs from August. His proposals were outlined at the London & South East Regional Meeting on July 15 2022.” “Unless you use an exempt vehicle - Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol cars & vans - you face a £12.50 daily charge. The ULEZ applies 24 hours a day, 364 days a year (the charge will not be implemented on Christmas Day). Transport for London will scrap the annual £10 per vehicle Auto Pay registration fee to make it easier for drivers of non-compliant vehicles to pay the ULEZ and Congestion Charge.
“However, TFL will increase Penalty Charge Notices from £160 to £180 – reduced by 50% if paid within 14 days. Sadiq Khan’s decision is controversial and his proposals were hotly debated in London. The BMF and other business representatives put forward views into the consultation. We said he should reconsider his decision and emphasised the need for a generous commercial vehicle scrapping scheme, as well as a later start date to allow firms to prepare. A majority of respondents to the
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consultation are opposed to his plans but the Mayor is pressing ahead,” he added. Representing the Bank of England, Angus Young, deputy agent for Greater London provided an insight into the current economic crisis.
Young said: “The good news from our perspective is price inflation is coming off the peak and we expect that to keep coming down through this year and reach around 3% this time next year. That is mainly a story about the energy crisis and the import of goods. Having said that, there is a lot of uncertainty. There are factors that could push inflation higher, particularly around the cost of services. When you go out to a restaurant or hairdressers, for example, you’re paying for people’s time and their skills. “At the moment, that is where we see the biggest risk of a rise in inflation. We build our projection of where the economy is going and we then make our own forecast of interest rates. We rely on what the market is saying and what the interest rates are going to do. When we flow that through our models, if we put interest rates as high as the models are saying they’re going to be, we’ll end up being below 2% infla-tion in two years time. This is because we would’ve squeezed demand in the economy more than necessary. As a result, there is a risk we could undershoot over the next three years but on the balance, there is probably more risk to the upside at the moment.”
“What does that mean for the wider economy beyond the inflation picture? A very mild reces- sion will happen this year. It will be different to
the images and memories you will have of past recessions. People will feel a bit of pressure but it will not be such a shock as e have had with previous recessions. The reason we’re saying that it won’t be as bad as what we predicted in November 2022, is because the squeeze on people’s day-to-day budgets has become smaller and interests rates have come down. The rate at which we come out of the recession, however, will be the chalenge,” he added.
The meeting also included presentations from ROCA about the architectural background of the iconic showroom and an overview of the international business, as well as talks from meeting sponsors SIG about the specialist distribution business’ focus on innovation and sustainability. This was shortly followed by a summary from Snap It founder Viktor Muhhin about the business’ mission to digitise the experience of ordering supplies for tradespeople.
To conclude the meeting, Newcomb commemorated Alex Clifford, who has made the decision to retire following seven years as key account manager for the BMF.
“Alex has done a tremendous job for us in his seven years with the BMF, winning the Regional Manager of the Year award for two consecutive years which reflects the impact he has had on our membership and his commitment to delivering training excellence. Alex will be missed by me personally , the rest of the BMF team and our Members and we wish him a very long and happy re-tirement,” said Newcomb. BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2023
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