CPA Weekly Notes – 5th June 2026

Issue No. 1204, 5th June 2026 FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Association Activities

Sponsor the CPA Autumn Lunch 2026
Preparations are now underway for our Autumn Lunch 2026, which will take place at the Brewery on the 5th of November. Tickets will go on sale later in the summer, but we are already looking for sponsors to help support this special event. If your company would be interested in becoming a sponsor, please take a look at the sponsorship form and get in touch with Fabi for more information.

Weekly CPA Meeting Calendar

Peter Caplehorn CPA CEO has a Construction Leadership Council Meeting and CLC/BSR New Build Operational Performance Meeting and will attend CLC Product Standards & Regulatory Alignment Group Meeting.
Amanda Long, Deputy CEO will be facilitating meetings in relation to the Industry Working Group on Steel Tariffs and Quotas on behalf of the CLC.
Noble Francis, CPA Economics Director, will be attending and presenting at a meeting at NMBS.
Mark Wilkinson, CPA Technical Manager is a meeting of CB/3 at the BSI and a CLC Standards and Regulatory alignment group meeting.

Economics Update

CPA Weekly UK Economic and Construction Update
The latest weekly update can be found here it includes:

S&P Global UK Construction PMI (May 2026)
DBT UK Brick Deliveries (April 2026)
HMRC UK Residential Property Transactions (April 2026)
Bank of England UK Mortgage Approvals (April 2026)
Nationwide UK House Price Index (May 2026)

The CPA’s Spring Forecasts were published on 5th May and can be found here.
The State of Trade Survey 2025 Q4 was published on 14th May and can be found here.

Government Update

GSR and White Paper Consultations
The CPA has made a number of submissions on the current consultations including coordinating the response for the Construction Leadership Council, and direct CPA a responses from the Technical Committee, The Sustainability Group. Hanna Clarke, CPA Digital Manager has also submitted a response from SLG 5 competence.

HSE E-Bulletin Published
The latest bulletin from the HSE on behalf of the Building Safety Regulator has been published. It contains pieces on:

The latest building control Gateway Two update for the 12-week rolling period to 1 May 2026.
Building Advisory Committee appointments
Review of Approved Document B
Planning Gateway One (PGO) marking its fifth anniversary.
An invitation to participate in online research sessions on the gateway process

The newsletter can be found here.

CPA Consultation Tracker
With an increasing number of consultations being launched by government, the CPA has launched a tracker with those consultations that are relevant to CPA membership. It can be found for members here.
New consultations will still be reported the Weekly Notes for a limited time.

Industry News

BMBI Q1 & March 2026

The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report reveals builders’ merchants’ like-for-like value sales for Q1 2026, adjusted to remove the impact of trading days, were -3.2% lower than Q1 2025. Like-for-like volume sales were down -8.1%, with prices increasing +5.4%. The full press release can be found here.

British standard on construction products competence published for public consultation
BS 8670-2 Built environment – Core criteria for construction product competence – Code of Practice has been published for public comment this week, closing 13 July. The standard aims to bring consistency across all how all disciplines working with construction products and product information throughout its life cycle. It does this by describing the core principals that should be included in all competence frameworks, training and qualifications. It also may impact how organisations delegate responsibilities with construction products in the organisations and their supply chain.
BS 8670-2 originates from the white paper that CPA published on behalf of WG 12 – Construction Products Competence – that has since been superseded by SLG 5 – Construction Products Manufacturers under the Industry Competence Steering Group, and has contributions from much of the CPA membership and colleagues across the Industry Competence Steering Group.
BS 8670-2 is available for comment here.

CPA in the News

Building material deliveries continue to fall
Rebecca Larkin, head of construction research at the Construction Products Association, said demand in April was “noticeably subdued”. She told Construction News: “Although deliveries of bricks and blocks both improved compared to March, due to better weather, deliveries were lower than a year earlier, reflecting the caution shown by housebuilders in starting new work. Further falls in production and deliveries recorded in other materials such as slate, ready-mix concrete and sand & gravel point to lingering weakness beyond house building, in non-residential sectors of construction such as commercial and industrial.”
Construction News| 03/06/2026 | online

PVs can work alongside rooflights – it needn’t be a case of either /or
“It’s been said that we punch above our weight for a small trade association and that’s down to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved, past and present. It’s why we have a seat with the Construction Products Association (CPA) and contact with Government officials.”
Total Contractor| 01/06/2026 | online

Latest BMBI builders merchants sales data puts spotlight on timber & joinery
These factors are shaping activity in the housebuilding sector, prompting the Construction Products Association (CPA) to revise down its 2026 outlook. Its latest Spring forecast suggests a much more difficult year for construction, including a forecast decline in private housing output.
TTJ| 01/06/2026 | online

BS 8670‑2 Explained: The Story Behind the UK’s New Construction Product Competence Standard
The Construction Products Association and the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) have both made clear that competence in product knowledge is now a market expectation, not just good practice. The BS 8670‑2 is aimed at removing ambiguity.
Construction.co.uk| 26/05/2026 | online

Houses are not homes: a question for Andy Burnham
Labour’s 1.5m homes target requires roughly 300,000 net additions a year for five years. The actual rate is closer to 200,000. The OBR’s most recent forecast puts this Parliament’s likely delivery at around 1 million across the whole UK, not just England, and the Construction Products Association has said the government will miss the target “significantly”. Planning applications, the earliest reliable indicator of future supply, are running at less than half the level required.
North West Place | 26/05/2026| Online