24 Jun 2021

At this juncture in June 2021, with COVID-19, outworking of Brexit, coupled with relatively loose economic policies, the construction industry is facing many challenges, and all coming to a head, one way or another.

  1. Higher material prices
  2. High labour costs
  3. Availability and delivery issues
  4. Supply/demand imbalance

Although some of the above may be described as ‘temporary’, it’s the here and now focus which shall draw the attention of the client, whether you are end user, developer, funder, builder, tradesman, supplier, sub-contractor or job seeker, each has their own angle on current events and their outworking over the next 3-5 years.

Bust follows boom…..as in previous economic cycles, there is usually some one factor which fuels the fire. Now we can see at least 4 as above, at least ! Take your pick and imagine a situation where more than one factor plays a significant role.

The recommended and brave approach is to retreat to calmer waters and reduce exposure to each and all of the above. Not an easy call !

Greed is not good for all ! Where we see one of the above, in bold, get greedy, the whole system shall spiral out of control.

Who is likely first to break with convention ?