profile
Matt Williams
Matt Williams is the Managing Director at Polypipe Building Products, joining the business in May 2023 from TradeKart Limited where he held the position of Operations Director. Prior to that, Matt held Operational Leadership roles at RWC and AkzoNobel, where he enjoyed great success in business transformation, process optimisation, and operational excellence.
Polypipe Building Products are part of the Sustainable Building Solutions Business Unit within Genuit, focusing on providing a range of solutions to reduce carbon content in the built environment.
Polypipe Building Products is the UK’s leading manufacturer of plastic piping systems and low-carbon heating solutions for the residential market. They design, develop, and manufacture over 20,000 product lines which are stocked in plumbers and builders’ merchants nationally.
Polypipe
Polypipe Building Products, part of Genuit Group, is one of Europe’s largest and most innovative manufacturers of plastic piping systems and low-carbon heating solutions for the residential market. At Polypipe Building Products, we specialise in products for domestic properties for both the new build and RMI markets with over 5,000 products to suit any installation in a range of aesthetics. Over our 40-year exitance, we have grown from a small plastic pipe manufacturer based in Doncaster, to a group of 17 businesses helping the UK construction industry build better and more sustainably.
As Genuit group, we consider ourselves thought leaders in the future sustainable built environment and we provide construction solutions way beyond plastic pipes and fittings, ranging from MVHR and SuDS systems to magnetic filters and anti-corrosion chemicals.
Our goal is to innovate and improve our products and services to help the UK reach net zero targets and to influence the market to drive towards future best practices and systems. With recent Part L building regulations updates, the steppingstone to the Future Homes Standard arriving in 2025, the heating of homes has suddenly become possibly the single biggest challenge facing UK housing developers and housing providers. The next few years will see the most fundamental change in heating domestic properties since gas boilers and steel radiators became commonplace during the late 1970’s and 80’s. Gas is being phased out as an energy source and heat pumps are being pushed by the government as a more sustainable electric heat source. This leads to opportunities for new and different heat emitters to be explored as heating solutions such as Underfloor Heating. This focus on decarbonisation is leading to a much higher level of insulation as standard in new build homes, which runs a very real risk of the challenge to heat homes quickly become a challenge to keep homes cool, particularly with record summer temperatures being regularly broken and expected to continue to get hotter. For this reason, heating and cooling must be considered in tandem in order to provide truly better homes for the future.
I am therefore joining the BMBI Experts panel to provide a specific focus on heating and cooling while we work together as an industry to provide solutions to this challenge. At Genuit we have ready-made complete solutions to heating and cooling of homes and we will continue to invest in renewable technologies to drive sustainable living.
Visit: www.polypipe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/polypipe/
Twitter: @PolypipeTrade
Launched in 2015, the award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media, commentators and influencers outside the industry.
Polypipe Building Products Comment: Q4 2025
As we approach the much-anticipated implementation of the Future Homes Standard (FHS), the UK residential construction sector is at a critical crossroads. The FHS mandates a 75-80% reduction in carbon emissions for new dwellings, effectively signalling the end of the gas boiler era in favour of Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs). The industry is seeing a shift in procurement patterns that suggests housebuilders are moving from planning to practice. The transition isn’t just about the external unit; it is about the internal plumbing infrastructure required to make low-carbon heating viable across the country’s housing stock.
The most telling indicator of this shift is the recent uptick in demand for larger diameter piping systems. While 10mm has been the domestic standard for decades, we are witnessing a marked increase in 15mm feeds. This is a direct response to the physics of low-carbon heating. Because heat pumps operate at lower flow temperatures (typically under 55°C), they require a higher flow rate to deliver the same thermal energy. To maintain efficiency and avoid system noise or pump strain, larger internal pipe diameters are essential.
Our (Polypipe Building Products) internal data aligns with these industry observations. We have seen a marked shift in 15mm plastic plumbing in the last 12-18 months, suggesting that developers are up-sizing internal networks to future proof their developments. With almost half of housebuilders now identifying the FHS as their primary design driver. This trend indicates that the industry is moving beyond mere compliance. By embracing larger diameter systems today, housebuilders are ensuring homes are truly “zero-carbon ready,” providing homeowners with efficient, future-proofed comfort.
The year 2024 ended with expectations based on an improving first half and a government with a mandate to put housing first and a parliamentary majority to implement it. But while 2025 struggled to get off the ground, January 2026 has started in a better place. Businesses and consumers are not confident in the prospects for the overall economy or the management of it, but they are confident in their own prospects and in their ability to manage their way forward. The industry is looking to grow modestly in 2026.