The pandemic has seen a number of shortages nationwide with construction and building supplies. Why might this be we hear you say? Aside from the pandemic shutting down a lot of suppliers nationwide causing disruptions in distribution times and Brexit causing a lot of supplying issues. The housing market has also had a role to play.
Overseas Shortages
Materials from Far East and Europe have been delayed for various reasons the past couple months, causing prices to soar.
In March 2021, the Suez Canal that moves 10% of Global trade was blocked by the Evergreen shipping vessel. This delay in trade caused huge shortages nationwide for construction supplies leading to a back log of work needed doing.
Brexit has also been a factor in supply shortages. Increase in trade prices, new testing standards and certification rules. Along with these factors there is a rising demand for supplies as the construction sector is put at the forefront of the economic recovery post Covid-19. Brexit has also lead to a lack in HGV drivers, which is just about affecting most sectors of business with being so reliant on materials from abroad.
Demand for New Builds
With a Government backing of £150 million for people to build their own homes we are seeing a high demand for construction. Between July 2020 and July 2021 the cost of materials rose by over 20% putting huge pressure on the construction industry and smaller businesses.
More People Spending Time at Home
With the Government lockdowns that have taken place through various different times in the last two years we have seen an increasing number of people spending more time at home.
What does this mean? Well, more people are finding the time to fix jobs around the house, or even lend a hand at learning new DIY skills. This has put a lot of pressure on the construction business as it has mean that they have had to keep up with the ever increasing demand of construction materials.
Will this end?
There are a few factors that were causing delays which are now cleared such as the Suez Canal and the end of the Furlough scheme, so in this sense the demand for materials should go down. However, Brexit is playing a large part of the shortage on both HGV drivers and getting materials. We think things will likely improve, just not quickly.