CPA Weekly Notes – 8th August 2025

Issue No. 1163, 8th August 2025 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

CPA Autumn Lunch 2025 | 13 Nov 2025 – Book your table
We’re excited to have you join us at the Brewery in London, on the 13th November 2025!
The CPA Autumn Lunch is recognised as one of the most important construction industry networking events, attracting a senior audience from across the construction supply chain including manufacturers and suppliers, clients, contractors, as well as influential political and media contacts. View this page to book your table. Single seats will be available on a later date.

CPA Autumn Lunch 2025 – Get on board and sponsor our event
CPA’s lunches are recognised as one of the largest networking events in the industry – so why not get your brand recognised too? We have great sponsorship offerings to get you the best possible coverage, pre and post-event! Click here to view the sponsorship package. If you have any sponsorship related question, please get in touch with Fabi.

CPA Webinar Recording now available: Construction Industry Forecasts – Summer 2025 Edition
Watch the recording of the forecasts webinar here. To download the latest Construction Industry Forecasts – Summer 2025 click here.

CPA 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; and meet with the Food & Drink Federation about dual use packaging within the construction sector.
Jeff May, CPA Deputy Chief Executive, will meet with BSI to better understand which of their committees may welcome additional manufacturer representation / contribution.
Jane Thornback, CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor, will host a presentation for members from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero about its consultation on growing the market for low carbon industrial products; and join Peter in the meeting with the FDF about dual use packaging within the construction sector.

Economics Update

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

S&P Global UK Construction PMI (July 2025)
DBT UK Brick Deliveries (June 2025)

The CPA’s Summer Forecasts were published on Monday, 28 July will be available for members to download from the CPA Website.

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 is now in Recess until the 1st September

Consultation on Late Payments
The Department for Business and Trade has launched a consultation seeking views on proposed legislative measures to ensure companies pay their suppliers quickly and on time, including measures to address the use of retention clauses in construction contracts. This is an important consultation for construction both in terms of the proposed options for retentions and the wider general payment measures. DBT wants CPA members to recognise that retentions may not be a direct issue for our manufacturers, but payment certainly is. The consultation runs for 12 weeks and closes on 23 October 2025. Further details can be found here.

Shadow Cabinet reshuffle
Sir James Cleverly is now the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with Kevin Hollinrake taking a new position as Chairman of the Conservative Party. The CPA is making arrangements to meet with Sir James.

Government publishes Infrastructure Pipeline
UK’s major infrastructure projects published giving investors and British business the certainty to plan for the long term.

NISTA’s new interactive Pipeline website sets out 780 planned projects including transport, energy, schools and hospitals.
Follows publication of government’s landmark 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy setting out new approach to infrastructure and vital reforms to ensure planning and delivery is joined up.
The pipeline will managed by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) and updated on a regular basis. Learn more about the pipeline here.

Government publishes joint plan to accelerate remediation of social housing
The Government have published a joint plan between social landlords, regulators and government, where they have committed to working together to accelerate remediation of 11m+ social buildings in England that have unsafe cladding. The joint plan includes 22 actions that will help them to achieve 3 objectives:

fix buildings
find all unsafe buildings requiring remedial works
support residents

In the joint plan, government and social landlords committed to the target dates for remediation set out in the wider Remediation Acceleration Plan:

By the end of 2029, every 18m+ residential building in a government funded scheme will be remediated.
By the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or its landlords will be liable for penalties.

The plan sets stretch targets for when social buildings will be remediated, and the action that government, social landlords and regulators will take to achieve them.

House of Lords call for Evidence on the Building Safety Regulator
The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, chaired by Baroness Taylor of Bolton, has launched an inquiry into building safety regulation, with a particular focus on the work of the Building Safety Regulator, which was established following the Building Safety Act 2022. Concerns have been raised by Industry that delays in approvals by the BSR have slowed down the delivery of new buildings and homes. The Committee invites interested individuals and organisations to submit evidence here by 31 August 2025.lowing the Building Safety Act 2022. Concerns have been raised by Industry that delays in approvals by the BSR have slowed down the delivery of new buildings and homes. The Committee invites interested individuals and organisations to submit evidence here by 31 August 2025.following the Building Safety Act 2022. Concerns have been raised by Industry that delays in approvals by the BSR have slowed down the delivery of new buildings and homes. The Committee invites interested individuals and organisations to submit evidence here by 31 August 2025.

Industry News

CLC Guide on the Movement of People
The Construction Leadership Council has published an updated Movement of People Guide – Construction Leadership Council as the first changes set out in the Immigration White Paper have come into effect. The updates include revised Skilled Worker Visa and Immigration Salary List sections, a new section on the recently introduced Temporary Shortage List, and other quality-of-life improvements to reflect the recent changes to the Points-Based Immigration System.

Building Safety Regulator Bulletin
The latest bulletin from the Regulator is available and includes updates on building control applications along with expert-led webinars. Click here to read the latest.

National Manufacturing Day – 25 September 2025
National Manufacturing Day is an initiative from Make UK and more than 300 manufacturing businesses and organisations including the CPA that is meant to showcase the UK industry and inspire the next generation of engineers, designers, and wider workforce by showing them the exciting career opportunities in your sector. Whether you’re a small local manufacturer or a household name, this is the perfect platform to open your doors and share your story with the future talent, the public and government. To learn more, please visit National Manufacturing Day or contact the team at Make UK with your questions.

Department for Business and Trade to review of the UK’s machinery safety legislation.
As part of the Department for Business and Trade’s review of the UK’s machinery safety legislation, there is a call for evidence and a series of stakeholder roundtables. These engagements aim to gather a broad range of views on potential reforms to the current regulatory framework, assess their impact on UK businesses and consumers, and explore opportunities to streamline implementation. This includes consideration of how any future changes could support the government’s ambition to reduce administrative costs and burdens on business.
Call for Evidence
The call for evidence seeks views on the potential benefits of enacting similar changes in Great Britain as apply in Northern Ireland and the EU, and on the impact of potentially continuing CE recognition for Machinery in Great Britain. This will help to inform the future regulatory position across the whole of the UK. You can access the call for evidence here. The deadline for responses is Monday 20 October 2025. Contributions are welcome from all interested parties, including manufacturers, importers, trade associations, consumers, and others with an interest in machinery regulation.

BSR Releases Gateway 2 Guidance
The guidance forms one of the CLC key deliverables around this issue and we hope will provide the means and confidence to improve the system. The CPA is also lobbying for greater visibility and monthly data around the current applications including clarity about expected approval dates and reasons for rejections; more resources and upskilling at the Regulator, as well as further improvements to the application ‘customer journey’.
Karl Whiteman, Berkeley Group Plc Divisional Chairman and Industry Sponsor for the CLC’s Building Safety Workstream, said: “On behalf of the CLC I want to thank the many expert contributors to these guidance notes, including members of Local Authority Building Control, Construction Industry Council (CIC) Industry Council, Build UK, the The G15 (a membership group of London’s leading housing associations), Construction Products Association, RIBA, Architectural Technical Leads Group and the Home Builders Federation.”
The CPA will continue to have regular meetings – both privately and alongside the CLC – with the BSR, Office for Product Safety and Standards, and MHCLG around such issues and will keep you updated. The CLC release can be read here. The HSE article can be found here.

CPA in the News

Infrastructure strategy: the start of renewal?
“Long-term strategies and the spending plans to back them up give the construction industry an element of what it needs: certainty that there is a long-term pipeline of major projects with funding set aside,” said Rebecca Larkin, head of construction research at the Construction Products Association. She highlighted benefits including enabling manufacturers to plan for materials and product capacity and contractors to plan for peaks in workloads.
CN | 04/08/2025 |Online

Guide to Products Critical to Safe Construction published
The guide was published in collaboration with the Construction Products Association [CPA], Code for Construction Product Information [CCPI], Institution of Structural Engineers [IStructE] and Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA].
CIC | 05/08/2025 |Online
Also in Scottish Construction Now, Construction Management, Build News, Specification Online.

Quiet month for business failures masks unresolved problems
“It’s good to see that administrations and insolvencies have slowed” as housebuilding gradually recovers, said Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association.
CN | 07/08/2025 |Online

Bank of England interest rates ‘provides confidence’
“Today’s decision should be seen as a green light by investors,” Chetwood Bank chief executive, Paul Noble said in reaction to the interest rate cut. “Rates are now far below their peak, and the lending markets should respond in turn. Pent-up demand can now be released, and we should expect activity levels to rise in the aftermath of today’s news.” For Noble Francis, executive director at the professor at the Construction Products Association (CPA), the widely-forecasted lowering of the Bank of England’s base rate will have little immediate effect but will, nonetheless, be a welcome move.
CN | 07/08/2025 |Online

Brick, gravel and cement block sales fall in early summer
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said the government data on brick consumption was a “useful proxy for housebuilding starts in the absence of monthly starts data”. “We would have expected deliveries to rise significantly in April, May and June, but demand and housebuilder near-term optimism has slowed significantly in 2025 Q2 [second quarter] and July,” he wrote on X. “Deliveries in June 2025 remained 18.9 per cent lower than the 2018-19 pre-pandemic average and 28.5 per cent lower than the post-pandemic peak of housebuilder optimism in early 2022. “The lack of significant pickup in demand and housebuilder optimism in 2025 Q2 and July is concerning as this would have been expected early in the year and is needed for housebuilding completions in 2025 H2 [second half].”
CN | 07/08/2025 |Online