CPA Weekly Notes – 12th September 2025

Issue No. 1168, 12th 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.  If you have any questions, please get in touch with Fabi.

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 

Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager, will have a variety of meetings with industry colleagues and civil servants around competence.

Peter Caplehorn, CPA Chief Executive, will meet with directors at the MHCLG, OPSS and Building Safety Regulator to discuss product issues; will attend the Westminster Insight’s Building Safety Conference and chair a panel discussion there about “Improving Regulation Within the Construction Industry”; will meet with the Considerate Constructors Scheme board (the CPA is a 50/50 joint owner of the CCS); will attend the Builders Merchants Federations annual Members Day in Birmingham; and join a regular meeting of the Construction Leadership Council’s Task Force.

Professor Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, will attend the Mineral Products Association’s Economics Affairs Committee meeting; and attend the Timber Trade Journal Awards.

Jeff May, CPA Deputy Chief Executive, will attend a policy forum hosted by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS); meet with Labour’s Business Relations team; and join Peter in the CLC’s weekly Task Force meeting.

Rob Lee, CPA Senior External Affairs Manager, will meet with the Labour Party Business Relations team.

Economics Update

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

• ONS Construction Output (July 2025)
• Arcadis Market View (Autumn 2025)
• RICS UK Residential Market Survey (August 2025)
• Vistry Half-year Results (September 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
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. ‘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

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 a few days 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 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

REHAU bucks the trend as commercial project enquiries more than double
The company’s performance comes at a time when the wider construction sector has faced significant headwinds. These challenges include rising inflation, delays in the planning process and weakened investor confidence, which were all highlighted by the Construction Products Association as reasons for downgrading their earlier H1 2025 forecasts.
Glass and Glazing Products | 11/09/2025 | Online
Also in Window News and Glass News

CCS appoints first-ever managing director
CCS is owned by the Construction Products Association and the Construction Industry Council and operates a voluntary scoring system for construction site standards, as well as a public complaints service. 
Construction News| 11/09/2025 | Online