Reflecting on 2023, the headlines for Q1 reads: ‘The first quarter of 2023 is down on the previous year’; Q2’s reads ‘The second quarter of 2023 delivered no excitement and started with a horrendous April before ‘recovering’’; and Q3’s reads ‘The third quarter of 2023 has offered no optimism from the continued slide in volumes’. So it’s safe to say it’s better not to say anything at all for Q4’s headline! In terms of overall volumes one would need to go back nearly a decade to report comparable volumes: 2023 volume is bad history and makes poor reading.

Onward into a re-vitalised 2024, we start with a continuing slide (slides used to be so much fun as a child). Yet that re-vitalisation has resulted in more ‘talk’ of positivity, more ‘talk’ of improvements coming, and more ‘talk’ of the worst is behind us. We have to believe, and yes, more competition in lending will hopefully result in new house purchases and RMI expenditure. As a steel lintel manufacturer though we will have to wait at least six months to see that positivity, from the point when the consumer actually makes the commitment, to it turning into orders for steel lintels.

This does allow our Technical and Specification teams to get to grips with the recent FHS2025 consultation document, and put together our response ahead of the 6^th March 2024 deadline. We are liaising closely with the SAP assessors and House Builders on the two options offered, and the overall impact this could have on lintel specification, build costs and consumer running costs. It’s surprising that the consultation document has not upgraded the fabric standards from Part L, which remain that the target fabric energy efficiency rate can be achieved only through fabric energy efficiency. This includes U-values, thermal bridging (eg Hi-therm) and airtightness. The SAP methodology currently used is being replaced by the Home Energy Model (HEM), still under development, which requires a lot of re-modelling to be done across the sector in time for a response on 6^th March 2024.