With the UK in the
grip of a housing crisis, the government has naturally focused its efforts on
increasing the number of new homes built, by setting an ambitious target of
300,000 a year.
That means now, more
than ever, it’s important for building materials manufacturers to play their
role by ensuring housebuilders have the large volumes of product available to
help meet demand.
However, recent
research by the Federations of Master Builders (FMB) has revealed that building
materials manufacturers are struggling to cope with the rise in demand, which
is having a knock on effect on developers and their build programme.
Bricks were in
shortest supply with the longest reported wait time being more than one year,
followed by roof tiles, where the wait in some cases was up to six months.
Other entries include aircrete blocks in sixth place, with the longest wait
time experienced approximately four months.
Aggregate Industries’
Building Products division has managed to avoid this shortage of products and
guarantee product availability to clients, after anticipating the surge in
demand from housebuilders. Specialising in concrete blocks, walling solutions, roofing
tiles and packed cement products for both commercial and residential buildings,
Jeremy Lee, sales director for Aggregate Industries, explains:
“It’s no secret that
there’s a shortage of housing in the UK, especially as year-after-year it
remains a key focus of every Budget announcement by the government. The
government has been putting pressure on developers to increase their build
numbers, and we knew that those housebuilders would respond. That’s why we made
sure we were ready to react to the surge in demand by investing early on into
our operations and spending £2.5 million, 12 months ago, to increase the
capacity at three of our factories.”
The £2.5 million
improvements were made at its Croft Block Plant in Leicestershire, and its Torr
and Callow Block Plants, both in Somerset. This funded the addition of an
‘egg-laying’ operation at Croft to create greater capacity, as well as
extending the manufacturing area in Torr and purchasing new machinery for Torr
and Callow to aid a more efficient manufacturing process.
Jeremy Lee, continues:
“By making the investment early on, we are now in the enviable position of
having the large volumes of products available to meet the increased demand.
Clients are coming to us to complete jobs, as they know we have the capacity to
fulfil the order, whilst other suppliers may struggle to meet the requirements.
We’re glad to be playing our part in keeping developers in supply and making
our vital contribution to the recovery of the housing shortage.”
