CPA Weekly Notes – 5th September 2025

Issue No. 1167, 5th September 2025 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

CPA Autumn Lunch 2025 | Sold Out!
We wish to thank our members for your support in helping us sell out the tables and seats for the upcoming Autumn Lunch (13 Nov). We look forward to welcoming 550 members and industry guests that day. Sponsorship opportunities remain (see below). If you have any questions, please get in touch with Fabi.

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 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 attend a workshop with MHCLG to specifically discuss products critical to safe construction; will speak on a webinar panel hosted by the HSE about Building Control Approval applications; will present at the NFRC National Conference; and join a regular meeting of the Construction Leadership Council’s Task Force.
Professor Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, will present at the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) conference about Redefining Value: From Lowest Cost to Lasting Impact; and present at a Tata Steel reception at the UK Metals Expo.
Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager, will have a variety of meetings with industry colleagues and civil servants around competence.
Jane Thornback, CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor, will meet with the Future Homes Hub’s Whole Life Carbon working group; attend a meeting of the CLC’s Green Construction Board Resources, Waste & Circular Economy Group; and meet with Defra officials and industry reps to discuss the definitions of household waste.
Mark Wilkinson, CPA Senior Technical Manager, will join the MHCLG workshop around products critical to safe construction; and meet with the Future Homes Hub’s ‘Fabric First’ working group.
Rob Lee, CPA Senior External Affairs Manager, will meet with Sonia Kumar MP (Labour, Dudley; member of the Business & Trade Select Committee) to discuss headwinds facing the industry; join a roundtable with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham about priorities and support for our manufacturers in the region; and will attend the NFRC’s annual conference and dinner.
Jeff May, CPA Deputy Chief Executive, will co-chair the CLC meeting of the Materials Supply Chain Group, meet with Treasury civil servants and housing industry colleagues about implications of the Landfill Tax Reform proposals; and join Peter in the CLC’s weekly Task Force meeting.

Economics Update

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

S&P Global UK Construction PMI (August 2025)
DBT UK Brick Deliveries (July 2025)
Bank of England UK Mortgage Approvals (July 2025)
Nationwide UK House Price Index (August 2025)

The CPA’s Summer Forecasts, published 28 July, are 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

Building Safety Regulator faces parliamentary committee
Both the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee and the Industry and Regulators Committee held sessions on the Building Safety Regulator this week.
The HCLG Committee met with representatives of UK building control and Building Safety Regulator (BSR) leadership. The meeting covered the performance of the regulator and its future plans.
The Industry and Regulator Committee discussed building safety regulation, focusing on the experiences of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). Key topics included the BSR’s operational challenges, delays in high-rise building approvals, workforce recruitment in building control, and the OPSS’s efforts to enhance compliance and enforcement in the construction products market.

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.

Industry News

Update from the Building Safety Regulator:
Members will know that the CPA and a handful of Construction Leadership Council representatives have weekly meetings with the Building Safety Regulator and over the past year those discussions have been very focused on the Gateway 2 delays. These have been immensely challenging conversations for both the BSR and industry, simultaneously recognising the need to raise the standards of applications whilst the construction sector has incurred serious economic repercussions because of project delays. This update (excerpt below) from the BSR and CLC hopefully reflects a turning point and progress, knowing that much still needs to be done:
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The Government, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and firms in the construction industry, are committed to working together to deliver buildings that are safe for those who live and work in them. For the past two years, the CLC has been working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the BSR to address the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations, improve competence, and transform industry culture and performance in relation to building safety.

The CLC began weekly meetings with the BSR in July 2024, to address industry concerns in relation to the operation of the building control regime for new Higher Risk Buildings (HRBs). These meetings focused on reducing the delays in the building control application approval process at Gateway 2 and Gateway 3, including through providing clearer joint guidance on the process and information requirements, as well as ensuring greater engagement between the BSR and applicants. As a result of those discussions and the subsequent task and finish group established by the CLC, a suite of Guidancewas recently published. The guidance suite was developed for industry via a collaboration between the CLC, BSR and industry stakeholders. The aim of the guidance is to help both those involved in submitting and assessing Building Control Approval applications at Gateway 2. While the guidance was developed for new build HRBs, many of the principles will also be helpful for existing HRBs.

Meetings continue to take place on a fortnightly basis between the CLC and the BSR to work through issues on an ongoing basis and find solutions collaboratively with further guidance for industry to follow in due course.
Following the recent announcement about the future of the BSR, Andy Roe, formerly the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, will be the Non-Executive Chair of the BSR, which will ultimately become an Executive Agency of MHCLG. An Innovation Delivery Unit and a new Fast Track Process for new build applications have also been introduced.
There is still much that needs to be done to fully enable the efficient operation of the building safety regime…. We look forward to working with you more over the coming months and will be in touch again shortly.

Industrial emissions: modernising environmental permitting
Government is consulting on Industrial emissions: modernising environmental permitting – GOV.UK. The deadline is 21st October 2025 and more information can be found here.

Regulatory science challenges to the uptake of innovation for Net Zero in retrofit
CPA is a project partner in this Innovate-UK funded network project to explore the regulatory challenges to the uptake of innovation for Net Zero in Retrofit. This one-year project is now entering its third quarter and the Network (BRE, National Retrofit Hub, National Energy Foundation) will convene an open meeting for anyone interested in learning about progress on 29 September 2025 from 13.30 to 15.00. Register at RetroNetZero RS&IN – BRE Group Events. For further information contact Jane Thornback

Review of Government Buying Standards (GBS)
The Government is reviewing the Government Buying Standards – these are guidelines that state that any new government procured building should be BREEAM Excellent, and any major refurbishment should achieve a BREEAM Very Good rating. There are also GBS for product groups such as windows, wood products, paints and varnishes, domestic gas boilers, Showers, taps, toilets, and others. Defra has issued a stakeholder survey here and will be convening webinars in September. Find the GBS for different product groups here. For further information contact Jane Thornback.

Government consultation on growing the market for low carbon industrial products – deadline 15 Sept
A reminder that there is just over one month left to respond to this government consultation on a technical consultation on a policy framework to grow the market for low carbon industrial products The CPA will be making a response and convened on 14 August as an opportunity for CPA members to engage with DESNZ officials directly. If you have views on the consultation, please do get in touch by contacting CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor Jane Thornback.

Building Safety Webinars
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will be hosting a joint webinar on Tuesday 9 September, 10am to 12 noon on Building Control Approval applications. The free webinar is aimed at developers in the construction industry who want to approach building control approval applications effectively, avoiding common mistakes. A panel discussion will cover the recently published CLC guidance for the Building Control Approval application process for a new Higher-Risk Building (HRB).
The CLC guidance suite was published in July 2025 and was developed by the CLC, BSR and industry experts. The guidance aims to provide the baseline principles to guide those involved in submitting and assessing applications for Building Control Approval applications (Gateway 2). While the guidance was developed for new build HRBs, many of the principles will also be helpful for existing HRBs. In addition, the BSR will also run the following webinars:

17 September – 10am to 12 noon – Building Control Approval demystified for SME developers
24 September – 10am to 12 noon – Building Assessment Certificate applications – lessons learnedYou can register for the webinars here.

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.

CPA in the News

Cement-making hits 75-year low as Labour’s building dreams crumble
Prof Noble Francis, an economist at the Construction Products Association, said the collapse in domestic cement production was the latest sign that the Government had “no chance” of meeting its housebuilding targets.
Daily Telegraph| 03/09/2025 |Online
Also in MSN News US, Yahoo News,

Why Skilled Construction Workers Keep Leaving
A recent study found more than a quarter of tradespeople looking for second jobs, while one in ten consider leaving construction entirely. The Construction Products Association calls this worker exodus “the greatest issue facing UK construction in the medium-term.”
Fixedd| 02/09/2025 |Online

Quiet month masks unresolved problems
“Insolvencies have slowed as housebuilding gradually recovers,” said Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association. However, he expected an uptick in administrations and insolvencies over the next 12 months…
Construction News| 01/09/2025 |Print

The “unsung hero” of HMI
The HMI Report will, as standard, delve into the issues suppliers face, as highlighted by the Construction Products Association’s economic and construction forecasts. The CPA’s contribution to the report benefits both the organisation…
Housebuilder Magazine| 01/09/2025 |Print

A spotlight on Scottish construction
The third quarter looks optimistic as construction output is forecasted to rise by 1.9% this year and 3.7% in 2026, according to the Construction Products Association’s (CPA) Summer Forecasts…
Project Scotland | 18/08/2025 |Online

What can architects learn about new guidance around products critical to safe construction?
Developed in collaboration with the Construction Products Association, the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI), the Institution of Structural Engineers, and RIBA, the guide is free to download and particularly relevant to designers. It focuses on identifying safety-critical products and systems, and outlines processes to demonstrate their compliance.
Architecture | 13/08/2025 |Online