CPA Weekly Notes 11th April 2025

Issue No. 1145, 11th April 2025 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

Construction Products Reform Green Paper Webinar  The CPA has collaborated with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to host the Building Safety Minister, Alex Norris MP for a webinar where he discussed the Construction Products Reform Green Paper, with CPA CEO Peter Caplehorn. A recording of the webinar will soon be made available and will be shared with our members.

CPA Spring Lunch Bookings Now Closed
Bookings have now closed for the CPA Spring Lunch. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you!

you!

CPA Weekly UK Economic and Construction Update
The latest weekly update is available here, including:

• ONS Construction Output (February 2025)
• S&P Global UK Construction PMI (March 2025)
• DBT UK Brick Deliveries (February 2025)
• RICS UK Residential Market Survey (March 2025)

The CPA’s Winter Forecasts were published on Monday 27 January and is available for members to download from the CPA Website, along with the accompanying webinar hosted by Noble Francis. Also note that the ONS has suspended its monthly UK building materials price data (and other producer price data) due to concerns about its reliability, which the CPA has been highlighting since the impacts of the energy and price spikes in Spring 2022.

Following strong demand from members and government alike, the CPA’s economics team has published a briefing paper on the ‘Impacts of U.S. Tariffs’.  This document will be revised as the situation develops, and made available to CPA members every Friday with our Weekly UK Economic and Construction Update.  To receive this document via email every Friday please contact noble.francis@constructionproducts.org.uk ; alternatively, you can click here to read it now.

Weekly Calendar of Meetings

• Peter Caplehorn, CPA Chief Executive, will co-chair the CLC’s Material Supply Chain Group meeting; attend the regular meeting of the CPA’s Technical Committee; meet with directors at the MHCLG, OPSS and Building Safety Regulator to discuss product issues; will chair two meetings of the CLC’s Standards and Regulatory Alignment Group to develop industry responses to the Government’s Green Paper:  one about ‘product regulations’ and one about ‘regulators and surveillance’; and will attend the weekly meeting of the Construction Leadership Council’s Task Force.
• Jeff May, CPA Deputy Chief Executive, will join both the CLC Task Force meeting and the Material Supply Chain Group meeting.
• Mark Wilkinson, Senior Technical Manager, will attend the regular meeting of the CPA’s Technical Committee; and join the two meetings of the CLC’s Standards and Regulatory Alignment Group (chaired by the CPA) to develop industry responses to the Government’s Green Paper:  one about ‘product regulations’ and one about ‘regulators and surveillance’.
• Jane Thornback; CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor, will attend a workshop hosted by Defra’s Circular Economy Taskforce to discuss the Built Environment.
• Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager, will have a variety of meetings with industry colleagues and civil servants around competence.

Economic Update

Housing

• UK house prices fell 0.5% in March (compared to February), according the Halifax house price index, but were 2.8% higher than a year earlier. The average UK house price in the month was £296,699. The price index is based on mortgage approvals from Lloyds Banking Group so the decline in March likely reflects demand returning to normal after an increase in January and February as buyers rushed to beat the change in stamp duty thresholds from 1 April.

Construction

• The Office for National Statistics has paused the publication of producer price indices due to data quality issues. As a result of this, DBT has decided to pause the publication of  its Construction Material Price Indices for the foreseeable future, as this data is directly dependent on ONS producer price indices. ONS hope to resume the publication of producer price indices in the Summer.

For further information contact rebecca.larkin@constructionproducts.org.uk

Parliamentary and Government Update

10 Year Infrastructure Strategy
The Treasury has published a working paper setting out the Government’s plan for its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy. The Strategy seeks to reduce uncertainty, by bringing together a long term plan for the country’s social and economic infrastructure, as well as housing. The Strategy will also set out an institutional framework to support its implementation, including setting out the role of public financing institutions such as the National Wealth Fund and how the Strategy will support other strategies such as the Industrial Strategy. The Treasury paper can be found here.

Recess
Parliament we be in recess from 8 April 2025 and returns on 22 April 2025

Industry News

BSI Built Environment Summit 2025 – 30 April 2025 | 09:30 – 17:00 BST
The BSI is hosting an interactive online event that brings together professionals, innovators, and thought leaders to address the challenges and opportunities of our rapidly evolving built environment sector.
This is a cross divisional event with experts from all parts of the BSI business as well as external speakers, and will be hosted on line.  The agenda highlights include:

• Insights from industry leaders: Learn about advancements in BIM, AI, and sustainability.
• Interactive sessions: Engage directly with speakers through Q&A and panel discussions.
• Networking opportunities: Connect with peers and explore virtual exhibitions.

To learn more or book your virtual seat, click here.

Make UK Launch Skills Report 
The Make UK Industrial Strategy Skills Commission’s report, Skills for success: the reforms essential to our economic future was launched by Make UK Chief Executive Stephen Phipson CBE and former Minister Robert Halfon, who co-chairs the commission.
The report calls on the government to back a UTC Sleeve initiative that would develop a high-quality technical education pathway within mainstream schools, and also calls for an exemption for UTCs from the Schools Bill’s requirement for all schools to deliver the national curriculum. The report also includes a case study of The JCB Academy, one of the oldest UTCs and an excellent example of the 44-strong network of schools that each year progresses more young people to apprenticeships and technical degree courses than the national average. The report can be read here.

Unpacking the impact of the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 2 report
The CPA’s Technical Manager Mark Wilkinson was a speaker on a webinar on the 1st of April as he and the other panelists unpacked the key recommendations from the Inquiry, the government’s planned actions, and their potential impact on housing providers, councils, developers, and tenants. The webinar was hosted by building.co.uk and you can watch a recording here.

Key discussion points include:

• A breakdown of the government’s response and its alignment with the inquiry’s findings.
• The evolving regulatory landscape for fire safety, cladding remediation, and building accountability.
• Implications for registered providers, councils, and construction professionals.
• The role of tenant engagement and advocacy in driving cultural change.
• Long-term challenges and opportunities for delivering safer homes.

April’s Construction Industry Snapshot 
Barbour ABI’s Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot covers contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualisations.
The main highlights from April’s edition are: 
• Contract awards dip again from a strong start to the year and now sit below the 2024 average at £6bn.
• Overall planning approval value levelled off in March at £8.6bn after a decline last month from a particularly strong January and December.
• The overall value of planning applications changed little from January rising just 2% to £8.8bn.
Accessible anytime, the Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot offers a seamless and interactive experience – keeping you closely connected to the insights that matter most.
View April’s Construction Industry Snapshot here.

Are You Ready to Enrol in the Siderise Academy?
With competency under the spotlight, it is important that all construction professionals have easy access to high quality, educational opportunities. Siderise Academy has launched a new, online learning platform designed to help the industry build its understanding of passive fire protection and acoustics in the built environment. Featuring RIBA-certified CPDs and modules developed under the ASFP recognised provider scheme, it can support the creation of safe, comfortable and compliant buildings designed to last. 
Created by technical experts at the global manufacturer of high-performance passive fire protection, acoustic and insulation solutions, the Siderise Academy online platform offers a range of on-demand courses, webinars and CPD modules that are accessible on any device with an internet connection. These are supported with reading materials and interactive assessments designed to test your knowledge and reinforce your learning.  
The content aligns with high industry standards and can be used as part of a competency pathway. Once a course or webinar is completed, users can download a certificate of completion, enabling them to document their learning and provide evidence that they are taking steps to maintain their competence through continuous learning and development.

CPA in the News

Trump tariffs: cancelled orders, plummeting share prices and dire warnings
Noble Francis, economics director of the Construction Products Association, told Construction News that the tariffs could cause a potential “sharp slowdown in global economic growth” unless Trump reversed them. It comes as Trump announced a 10 per cent levy on all goods brought into the US from abroad, with higher charges for certain products and particular origin countries. The US president had previously slapped a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports.
Construction News | 08/04/2025 | Online

Glimmer of hope shines amid ‘deep concern’ over Trump tariffs
Construction Products Association economics director Noble Francis said the move would cause uncertainty and pricing volatility for UK construction, which will be factored into prices and lead to inflation. “It is likely to mean higher uncertainty, volatility in pricing, and a shift, over time, towards different trade routes. Only around 15 per cent of UK construction materials and products are exported, but for those materials and products that are exported to the US, then the tariffs will make a significant difference short-term.”
Construction News | 04/04/2025 | Online

Doubt cast on Rachel Reeves’ claim Labour will be in ‘touching distance’ of building 1.5 million homes
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association (CPA), told Big Issue “the government will fail to meet its target by around 50% and even that is assuming strong growth”. He added that the CPA’s forecasts show Labour is facing a challenge to hit 1.1 million new homes before the next election with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), housing associations and local authorities all facing barriers to building. 
Big Issue |28/03/2025 | Online

Can Starmer get us out of the mess of Trump’s tariffs
For construction, Noble Francis at the Construction Products Association has pointed out that the biggest immediate threat is not volatile product prices, though that could have a negative impact on some current projects signed under fixed-price contracts. No, the big fear is that in this the new and uncertain era for global trade, investors will not push ahead with projects that were going out for tender or are at the contract signing stage. The fate of the entire global economy seems to be in the hands of one capricious US president
Building | 08/04/2025 | Online