Supply Chain

Morgan Sindall has managed to limit the impact of inflation and material shortages on its operations, according to a trading update issued this morning, but it added that supply-chain difficulties remain “a significant challenge”, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. “The impact continues to be minimised on most projects through…

Charlotte Eccles is senior associate and Chris Hallam is partner at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP We are living on the verge of a climate emergency and the built environment accounts for more than a third of UK carbon emissions. That’s not a statistic we can be proud of,…

Material prices have shot up again after months of gradual decrease, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Timber and steel were two of the hardest hit materials, with both seeing prices balloon in March, according to statistics provided by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Fabricated structural steel,…

Concerns over inflation are set to dog the construction industry in the long term, the Construction Products Association (CPA) has warned. Price pressures around labour shortages, rising material costs, bigger energy bills and the Russian invasion of Ukraine will all threaten the sector’s growth, particularly in the final months of…

Rebecca Sperti is customer relationship director at Causeway Technologies Prompt payment is the cashflow lifeline that keeps many businesses afloat in the construction supply chain. But our analysis of more than 8 million invoices sent to the top 100 construction firms in the UK has revealed that about 10 per…

At least 33 companies ‘unwittingly’ paid an organised criminal gang that placed hundreds of Romanian victims onto construction sites. A report by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner revealed that a criminal gang placed up to 500 victims on building sites in London and the South East between 2009 and 2018. The…

Contractors have now had a month to come to terms with the ban on red-diesel's use in the construction industry. On top of high material prices, soaring energy bills and the ever-increasing cost of labour, the use of the cheaper, rebated red diesel came to an end on 1 April.…

Suppliers have warned of cost uncertainties despite posting strong financial results. Builders' merchant Travis Perkins is among those that have pointed to an uncertain future in the wake of encouraging results from the firm's first three months of trading in 2022. The company said that the volatile supply of materials…

Balfour Beatty has blamed supply chain issues and the pandemic for a delay to its £25.7m refurbishment work at a Victorian park in Aberdeen. The contractor was due to complete a section of the Union Terrace Gardens for a soft opening on Tuesday this week, but the event was called…

Soaring costs are now affecting an overwhelming majority of construction-material suppliers, research has revealed, with further inflation in the prices paid by contractors expected. All of the manufacturers polled by the Construction Products Association (CPA) said they had seen their costs increase over the year to the first quarter of…