CPA Weekly Notes – 23rd May 2025

Issue No. 1151, 23rd May 2025 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

Watch the Recording of the CPA Webinar: U.S. Tariff Disruption, Uncertainty, and the CPA Construction Forecasts
U.S. tariff disruption has increased uncertainty and made market forecasting even more difficult than during Covid-19 Pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. The webinar, hosted by Professor Noble Francis, focuses on the potential impacts for the U.K. economy and construction sector. Watch the recording and download the slides, here.

Pictures from the CPA Spring Lunch 2025
The CPA we would like to thank all our guests for coming to our Spring Lunch 2025, in particular we would like to express our gratitude to the sponsors ( Barbour ABI, Kilsaran, Peak AI and Siderise) for their invaluable support, which helped to make this event a reality.
To view the photo album from the day, click here. If you want to download pictures, please add the following code: 4215.

CPA Webinar: Green Paper on Construction Products Reform with Building Safety Minister Alex Norris MP
The video of this event is now available to watch here. Please share the link amongst colleagues if they were unable to watch the webinar live. Officials at the MHCLG have also requested that CPA members fill out this form to help them with providing further information to members on the Act as it progresses.
Weekly Calendar of Meetings

• Peter Caplehorn, CPA Chief Executive, will meet with directors at the MHCLG, OPSS and Building Safety Regulator to discuss product issues; will chair a meeting of the CLC’s Standards and Regulatory Alignment Group; and will attend the weekly meeting of the Construction Leadership Council’s Task Force.
• Professor Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, will attend a meeting of the RIBA Economics Panel.
• Mark Wilkinson, CPA Senior Technical Manager, will attend a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Building Standards Energy Review Working Group; and join the meeting of the CLC’s Standards and Regulatory Alignment Group.
• Jane Thornback, CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor, will attend a meeting of the Green Construction Board, hosted by the Department for Business & Trade (the CPA acts as secretariat for the GCB).
• Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager, will have a variety of meetings with industry colleagues and civil servants around competence.

Economics Update

CPA State of Trade Survey Published
The CPA State of Trade Survey for the opening quarter of 2025 suggested that even before tariff-related disruption and uncertainty hit the UK economy in April, the construction recovery was taking a little longer to gain momentum. In Q1, product sales decreased for a balance of 15% of heavy side firms, which comes after three previous quarters of growth.  Click here to read more.  The Survey is available free to CPA members.

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

• ONS UK CPI Inflation (April 2025)
• RIBA Future Trends Survey (April 2025)
• Insolvency Service Construction Insolvencies (March 2025)

The CPA’s Spring Forecasts were published on Monday, 28th April and are available for members to download from the CPA Website. 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.

CPA Briefing Paper:  The Impacts of U.S. Tariffs
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 (see above).  To receive this document via email every Friday please contact noble.francis@constructionproducts.org.uk ; alternatively, you can click here to read it now.

Government Update

Parliament has risen for the Whitsun holiday and will return on 2nd June.

Govt Opens Consultation on Improving Integrity of Voluntary Carbon Markets
Government seeks to clarify and test their proposed policy and governance framework for helping to ensure the integrity of voluntary carbon and nature markets.  Find the consultation here, deadline is 10 July 2025.  For further details contact Jane Thornback.

Govt Opens Consultation on the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
This is a technical consultation running until 3rd July to get feedback on the drafting of the primary legislation of the UK CBAM.  The purpose of a CBAM is to place a carbon price on specified goods imported to the UK from sectors that are at risk of carbon leakage.  The aim being to protect UK manufacturing.  Find details here.  For further details contact Jane Thornback.

Industry News

2050 Connected Conference (1-2 July, London)
BEAMA (British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers’ Association) and the Lighting Industry Association are offering CPA members free places at an exclusive industry event that brings together manufacturers, suppliers, and sustainability leaders to accelerate industrial decarbonisation across the supply chain. This is an opportunity to engage directly with peers and partners on critical topics such as embodied carbon measurement, Scope 3 emissions reporting, and supplier collaboration strategies. Through expert-led discussions and interactive sessions, you’ll gain practical insights into measuring and reducing emissions, aligning net-zero strategies with Scope 3 targets, and engaging stakeholders to drive meaningful change.  This event offers a platform to network, share best practices, and inform your net-zero transition planning. For more information click here and to register your place please click here.

The Installer Show (24-26 June 2025)
The CPA and many of our members are supporting The Installer Show at the NEC Birmingham from 24-26 June, and we encourage others to attend.  The Installer Show has gone from strength to strength over the past years and is highly recommended for its industry representation and engagement as well as a topical speaking agenda. To register, click here.

BRE rebrands the Home Quality Mark to BREEAM Residential
BRE has streamlined its offerings and the Home Quality Mark (HMQ) is now rebranded and BRE has released it as residential sustainability assessment, BREEAM UK New Construction: Residential V6.1.  Find details here.  For further details contact Jane Thornback.

News From our Lunch Sponsors 

Brad Davis appointed as Head of Commercial for Siderise North America
Siderise is thrilled to appoint Brad Davis as Head of Commercial for Siderise North America. With vast experience in the region and a history of working in architectural sales and services roles, Brad is a central part of the passive fire protection manufacturer’s strategy to bring its life safety solutions to projects across the USA. 

Brad joined Siderise at the end of 2024 after holding notable positions as Director of Architectural Sales at Focchi North America and Director of Architectural Services at Schüco USA. This experience not only exemplifies his passion for architecture but has also given him a deep understanding of the practical challenges facing designers and specifiers of external wall systems, developing a meticulous, detailed-orientated approach to meeting these needs and objectives.

As Brad explains:

“There are many perspectives from which we can appreciate our built environment — beauty, performance, function, resilience, and so many more— but we must never overlook safety! It is a privilege and honour to join such a dynamic organisation that prioritises integrity and is dedicated to enhanced building safety. I am looking forward to being part of the global Siderise team and its successful growth in North America.”

Siderise is a leading manufacturer of high-performance passive fire protection for the building envelope, including cavity barriers and firestops for use in facade types such as curtain wall, cladding and masonry. Driven by its ethos of “integrity in all we do,” Siderise  takes a service-led approach to business, providing an extensive technical and site support wrapper around its solutions to empower customers, enable best-practice specification and installation, and promote compliance and higher building safety standards around the world. This includes design and specification support, bespoke solution development and testing, CPD, product and installation training, as well as installation inspections.Siderise Insulation is part of the Siderise Group, operating alongside Siderise Special Products — specialists in high performance acoustic and thermal solutions for construction, rail, marine and HVAC applications.

CPA in the News

Has the government sold out on construction products regulation
Mark Wilkinson, senior technical adviser at the Construction Products Association (CPA). He says the trade body’s members have been largely pleased with the green paper’s proposals as a “short-term solution” which avoids the “horrendous” cost implications of switching to UKCA. Like Strong, he believes it may not be a final decision and that it has been made at this stage in order to give the government a “bit of extra time”. “It’s almost as if the government are saying, ‘look, we don’t know all the answers. Industry potentially do, because they’re the experts. Can you help us to provide a solution that works?”
Building | 13/05/2025 | Online

The Unanswered Questions over Donald Trump’s Trade Deal with Britain
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said it was also unclear whether the deal covered steel used in derivative products such as vehicle parts, industrial components and household goods that were initially included in Trump’s announcement of the 25 per cent steel tariffs in March.  “It is critical that firms get clarity on this as soon as possible as it could have a major impact on their exports to the US,” he added.
FT.com | 09/05/2025 | Online

Mixed opener to 2025 for construction product manufacturing, reports CPA
The results of the Construction Products Association’s State of Trade Survey for the first quarter of 2025 showed it was a mixed quarter for construction product manufacturers’ sales performance. Encouragingly, forward-looking indicators point to expectations of growth returning over the next 12 months as the construction recovery accelerates.
Building Merchants News | 12/05/2025 | Online

UK adds just 65 miles of motorway in 10 years
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said: “Anyone who travels on the roads in the UK knows that we need improvements in both the quality of existing roads and new, additional roads to make travelling easier and quicker.”
FT | 04/05/2025 | Online
also in WDCTV.News, TransLogistics, ExBulletin, GB News (Online), Birmingham Live,

Expect surge in infrastructure activity, says RICS
The concerns over the impact of US tariffs on the construction industry mirror warnings made by the Construction Products Association (CPA) earlier this week. The CPA warned tariffs represented “a big risk” to the sector’s recovery, and that big private sector projects could stutter while investors wait to gauge the outcome and impact of global import duty hikes.
Construction News | 02/05/2025 | Online

Trump Tariffs: US could face UK retaliation
 Noble Francis, economics director of the Construction Products Association, said 15 per cent of UK construction products were exported last year, with the US the second largest market
Construction News | 02/05/2025 | Print