HEAVYSIDE BUILDING BACK, BLOCK BY BLOCK
Besblock managing director Andrew Huxley looks at current supply issues
T
he government has pledged to ‘rebuild Britain’ in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. But it is a combination of the pandemic and challenges related to our exit from the European Union that are causing issues for the industry.
And while demand for our building materials is higher than ever, it is impossible to escape the issues we are currently facing, with disruptions in the supply chain, a shortage of workers and a rise in prices.
Our various teams are as busy as they have ever been but prices of materials are causing problems. When you couple that with transport delays, it is obviously not great for us as a business and means we are noticing a serious supply-and-demand issue among the big developers.
We’ve never seen demand like this from the construction sector. Every Besblock client wants more blocks, more often. In many respects it’s the perfect storm. You have an incredibly buoyant housing market plus people appear to have more money in their pockets post lockdown. This is coupled with huge capital projects all around the country consuming vast quantities of raw materials.
There’s a lot going on in the industry at present and we need someone to take action really before it becomes a crisis.
It puts real emphasis on relations with supply
chains, for example ensuring prompt payments, and also requires a proactive approach to procurement. Industry needs to work more closely with customers.
At Besblock, we supply the nation’s leading housebuilders from our two-factory site in Halesfield and orders are coming in thick and fast. We’ve recently reduced our gas usage by 95% as we now generate the steam for curing our blocks by burning waste wood rather than sending it to landfill.
We, as an industry, need to stay in very close contact with customers so we know what projects they have coming up and what materials they are going to be using. That way, we can try to stay ahead of what they need to minimise delays as much as possible. The issues surrounding the shortage of HGV drivers is well documented, with a shortage of thousands of drivers as a result of post-Brexit rules and tens of thousands of HGV driver tests being postponed because of the pandemic. It is welcome news that the Government is looking to address this. It has allowed HGV drivers to work longer hours, although this obviously comes with its own issues, and has also agreed to fund more training. There have also been calls for the Government to address the shortfall by granting temporary work visas to drivers from the EU. I understand the Government’s view that we need to invest in the UK jobs market, but any initiative that can
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net November 2021
“We’ve reduced our gas usage by 95% as we now generate the steam for curing our blocks by burning waste wood rather than sending it to landfill. ”
provide a solution to the situation we currently find ourselves in needs serious consideration. The construction sector has also seen vacancies reach their highest ever level, with 37,000 positions available between June and August. This reflects the demand we are seeing, but also highlights a lack of availability of candidates and a lack of apprentices coming through.
We need the commitment of the industry, training and skills providers, Government and local authorities to work together to tackle this. In the long term, we need to prioritise sectors that need the help most and that will have the biggest economic impact by boosting the opportunities for young people to get the skills they need to work in those industries. Ultimately, there is no quick fix and I expect the issues we are experiencing to last for some time yet. However, there are grounds for optimism. We know some large projects are being delayed until 2022 because of these issues, which means that, with the right mitigation in place, we should be able to look forward to a healthy start to the new year. We’ve reduced our gas usage by 95% as We now generate the steam for curing our blocks by burning waste wood rather than sending it to landfill. BMJ
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