A few months back, in March, we began to see a slight easing in the constraints around material availability. But as we rolled into quarter two, mounting concerns over the conflict in Ukraine, particularly in relation to energy and materials supply, saw a fall in heavyside demand and further concerns over commodity price volatility. For an industry already dealing with the fall-out from significant price rises in the second half of last year, this has increased the challenge of maintaining economic stability.

Throughout quarter two there has been a slowing in demand across both housing and civils sectors. Industrial project growth has remained strong however, driven primarily by the continuing uplift in new warehousing starts. Similarly, opportunities across the infrastructure sector have also increased as projects related to HS2 and the regulated sectors; highways and rail, gather momentum.

Given the underlying economic and commercial unpredictability, quotation activity remains stable with strong enquiry volumes matched to those of a year ago. However, we are seeing a change in delays to on-site start dates, particularly on those projects with fixed price elements. Many contractors burdened with fixed price contracts have been attempting to renegotiate while product cost inflation surges to record levels.

In what we believe is a fundamental shift, construction businesses and industry-related stakeholders are increasingly collaborating to meet the challenges of sustainable, net-zero development. Once the preserve of specialists, increasing numbers of merchants and developers are engaging with experts in the areas of water neutrality, nutrient neutrality, and biodiversity-net-gain to establish knowledge partnerships and increase learning. These areas are having a growing impact throughout the supply chain.

If we are to combat the effects of climate change and achieve the required transformational change in what we build and how we build it, we’ll only do it, at the scale that is necessary, through greater collaboration.