4 | JUNE 2018
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
SMALL BUILDERS RESILIENT DESPITE MATERIAL PRICE HIKES
The workloads of small and medium-sized (SME) construction firms grew slightly
in the first three months of this year despite record numbers of builders reporting
rising material prices, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
Key results from the FMB’s latest
State of Trade Survey, which is the
only quarterly assessment of the
UK-wide SME construction sector,
include:
• Construction SME workloads
remained positive in Q1 2018
but grew at a slower rate than
in Q4 2017;
• The construction SME sector
has now enjoyed five years of
consecutive growth;
• More construction SMEs pre-
dict rising workloads in the
coming three months, up from
38% in the previous quarter to
49% in Q1 2018;
• 90% of builders reported
increasing material prices in
Q1 2018, this is the highest
reading on record;
• More than half (58%) of con-
struction SMEs are struggling
to hire bricklayers and 55%
are struggling to hire carpen-
ters and joiners;
SENIOR ARCHITECTURAL
SYSTEMS JOINS BFRC
We are delighted to announce that
Senior Architectural Systems is the
latest system house to