Construction material prices hit record high
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The price of building materials has hit a record high as the construction sector has struggled with supply chain disruption.
Rising costs of wood and steel are looming over the sector’s recovery as businesses worry about overruns and delays.
Prices were up 4.5 per cent in July compared to June and were up 20 per cent on last year, according to figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, reported in The Telegraph.
The construction materials price index is at its highest point since records began in 1996.
“The majority are seeing a lot of pain in terms of seeing prices of your construction materials increasing. The shortages are probably more of the issue at the moment,” Tom Hall, chief economist at Barbour ABI, told the newspaper.
“If you’ve got people on site that are waiting for things to be built and there’s no bricks, glass or mortar, then it’s not just the cost of the materials,” Hall added.
Rising costs signal bad news for the Prime Minister’s “build, build, build” commitment to level-up the country’s infrastructure.