CPA Weekly Notes – 10th October 2025

Issue No. 1172, 10th October 2025 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

CPA Webinar: Construction Industry Forecasts – Autumn 2025 Edition 
We would like to invite you and your respective members to join the CPA webinar for our Construction Industry Forecasts – Autumn 2025 Edition taking place on Wednesday 29^th October at 11am . The webinar will cover the UK economy this year, the latest construction data, and the new construction forecasts for the key sectors, as well as highlighting key risks to the economy. The webinar will be hosted by Professor Noble Francis, CPA’s Economics director. Click here to register.

CPA Engagement at Conservative Party Conference
The CPA attended the Conference over the past days and was pleased to meet with a number of Shadow Ministers, select committee members and MPs representing constituencies with our members’ businesses, including: Lord Harrington, Peter Bedford MP, Nigel Huddlestone MP, Dr Ben Spencer MP, Alex Burghart MP and many others.

CPA is supporting CRASH Charity at the Autumn Lunch 2025 – Donate and enter the Raffle
CPA is proud to support CRASH – the UK construction industry charity since 2002. CRASH is all about helping homelessness charities and hospices with vital construction projects and creating places that care for people – and this makes it a perfect fit for the CPA and all our guests from across the construction supply chain. We will have  a collection of donations during the Lunch for CRASH (card payments are also accepted), at the end of the speeches we will have a small raffle. Please get in touch with Fabi if you would like to donate a prize for the raffle. 

CPA Weekly Calendar of Meetings 

• Adam Turk, CPA Chairman and CEO of Siderise Group, will chair a regular meeting of the Industry Principals Council (IPC).
• Peter Caplehorn, CPA Chief Executive, will present to the IPC; meet with directors at the MHCLG, OPSS and Building Safety Regulator to discuss product issues; will chair a meeting of the CLC’s Materials Supply Chain Group; attend a meeting of the National Retrofit Hub’s Advisor Hub; attend the launch of the FloodReady 2025 – An independent review of property flood resilience with Emma Hardy MP (Minister for Water and Flooding); and join a regular meeting of the Construction Leadership Council’s Task Force.
• Professor Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, will present to the IPC; will attend the BESA Annual Conference and present on Redefining Value: From Lowest Cost to Lasting Impact.
• Jeff May, CPA Deputy Chief Executive, will present to the IPC.
• Mark Wilkinson, CPA Senior Technical Manager, will join Peter in a regular meeting of the CPA Technical Committee; attend the UKAS Annual Lunch; and attend a webinar hosted by Construction Products Europe about Extended Producer Responsibility.
• Jane Thornback, CPA Sustainability Policy Advisor, will present to the IPC; attend a meeting of the Emissions Trading Group’s Net Zero Working Group; attend a meeting of the Regulatory Science and Innovation Network to discuss unlocking adoption of retrofit innovation.
• Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager, will have a variety of meetings with industry colleagues and civil servants around both competence and digitalisation of product information.
• Rob Lee, CPA Senior External Affairs Manager, will join a regular meeting of the CBI Trade Association Campaigns & Public Affairs Group; attend an online roundtable discussion with Sir Charlie Mayfield as part of the Keep Britain Working Review; will meet with Helena Dollimore MP (Labour (Co-op) for Hastings and Rye).

Economics Update

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

• S&P Global UK Construction PMI (September 2025)
• CIOB Capacity Constraints in Construction Report (October 2025)
• RICS UK Residential Market Survey (September 2025)

The CPA’s Summer forecasts were published on Monday, 28 July, and are available from the CPA Website, whilst its Autumn forecasts will be published on Monday 27 October. 

Capacity constraints in construction: rethinking the business environment
The CPA contributed significantly to a new economic report by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) exploring the construction industry’s capacity to deliver on key targets and meet demand for new homes and infrastructure in the UK. The report can be found here.

Government Update

DESNZ Survey Request
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) Product Standards team invites CPA members to take part in a short survey on Ecodesign requirements for standby, off-mode and networked standby.  The aim of this survey is to gather evidence on the potential impacts if the UK aligns with the EU’s updated Regulation (EU) 2023/826, and to compare these with the current GB requirements under Regulation (EC) No 1275/2008. The EU’s updated rules would increase the stringency of requirements and bring additional products into scope. Your input will help DESNZ assess the implications for UK businesses and inform future policy.
 The survey can be accessed via the following link: https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90904374/Standby-Networked-Standby-Survey.  It will ask some questions about your organisation, your product portfolio, and your views on the current and future requirements.  A separate Excel file is provided for you to add technical and sales volume details about your products.
 All responses will be viewed only by DESNZ and its research agencies and combined to build an anonymised, aggregate picture. If you are a trade association, you are welcome to provide association-level responses and/or coordinate input from your members.

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.

Government consultation on water efficiency requirements in building regulations
Government is proposing a plan to strengthen Water Efficiency Standards in the Building Regulations 2010, Part G, to require tighter standards in new homes.  It also seeks more information on enabling water reuse systems in new developments to enable even greater water efficiency in homes. The deadline is 16 December.  Find the documents here Water Efficiency Standards: a review of Building Regulations 2010 Part G2 – GOV.UK

Industry News

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.

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.

News from Our Autumn Lunch Sponsors 

Siderise accelerates passive fire protection installation with new made-to-measure precision Cut Strip Service
To accelerate installation and enhance precision of its passive fire protection, Siderise has launched a new advanced Cut Strip Service—delivering ready-to-install, digitally sized cavity fire barriers and firestops for building façades. This innovative offering eradicates cutting onsite, reduces waste, and improves safety, helping contractors to achieve faster, more accurate, and more cost-effective installations. This marks a bold step forward in Siderise’s mission to ‘Go Beyond, contributing to safer buildings.’
 Cavity barriers and firestops are often supplied in slab form for cutting to size onsite. However, through this new service, contractors can choose to have any Siderise CW, EW, RH and RV products pre-cut on Siderise’s high-speed, automated production line to meet their exacting project requirements. This results in precision-cut products that have been digitally sized and manufactured under strict quality control measures, ensuring consistent quality and mitigating the safety risks and inefficiencies of onsite cutting.
 But this isn’t just about convenience. Using this service can save considerable time, effort and labour – therefore associated costs. To ensure contractors and project managers see these benefits in their project’s bottom line, the Cut Strip Service has been carefully and competitively priced so that its cost is negated by the savings made from a more efficient installation process and reduced waste.
Siderise has developed the Cut Strip Service in direct response to growing demands for improved quality control in construction products, while also addressing global challenges related to site efficiency, safety, and the implementation of sustainable waste management practices on construction sites.
Gavin Rees, Chief Operating Officer at Siderise explains more:
“The Siderise Cut Strip Service exemplifies our ‘Customer First’ and ‘Strive for Betterment’ values. Pre-cut passive fire protection products offer major advantages on all kind of projects—whether it’s ensuring consistent quality across large projects, reducing site waste to meet ESG goals, or speeding up installation. By automating this process, we’re making it a standard offering across all product ranges, with unmatched lead times, cost efficiency, and confidence in product precision.”
Additionally, using pre-cut strips may help installation teams better demonstrate alignment with project plans and drawings— an important consideration for projects in regions with strict building safety and compliance regimes such as the UK.
The Siderise Cut Strip Service is now available for all projects around the world, alongside standard slab supply. For more information, please contact salesteam@siderise.com.

CPA in the News

Investors make record retreat from shares as AI crash fears rise
Noble Francis, economics director at the CPA, said brick deliveries were still 25pc lower than in 2022, adding “it will take a few years just to get back to those levels, never mind the levels of house building government keeps saying will be built in this five year parliament”.
MSN News US| 07/10/2025 | Online
also in: Yahoo News UK, MSN UK,

CIOB releases new report on construction industry capacity
Professor Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, commented: “This research is extremely valuable as it goes beyond the vast array of reports and policies, each aimed at addressing just one symptom of problems in the UK construction industry, and instead focuses on addressing the initial key issues that cause the vast majority of its problems.
Scottish Construction Now| 07/10/2025 | Online
also in: Construction Enquirer 

Drop in brick deliveries signals ‘weak’ demand for housebuilding
Rebecca Larkin, head of construction research at the Construction Products Association, said the figures raise a question mark over when the housebuilding recovery will begin. “While there is often a dip in summer, this fall seems to echo what has been reported throughout the supply chain – that housing market demand and housebuilding activity still remains weak,” she told Construction News. “For the year to date, brick deliveries are one-quarter lower than they were at the peak of activity that occurred in the same period of 2022″.
Construction News| 01/10/2025 | Online

CAB announces date for latest AGM
The Council for Aluminium in Building (CAB) will hold its 31st Annual General Meeting at Stratford’s Crowne Plaza on the 23rd October. The headline speaker will be Noble Francis, Economics Director at the Construction Products Association (CPA), who will provide an update on the economic outlook for the construction sector.
Glass and Glazing| 23/09/2025 | Online

Demand for housing work stalls despite recovery hopes
Product manufacturers expected demand for work in the housebuilding sector to have recovered by this point in 2025, the Construction Products Association (CPA) head of construction research Rebecca Larkin told Construction News. But that recovery “has still not materialised”, she said, in either the new-build or housing repairs, maintenance and improvement sectors.
Construction News| 24/09/2025 | Online