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Published: 05/12/2024
Each month the Department for Business and Trade publishes construction material price indices, categories under All Work, New Housing, Other New Work and Repair and Maintenance, as well as tracking a selection of building materials and components for the UK, and providing statistics on bricks and concrete blocks production, delivery and stock for Great Britain.
Annual movement in building materials prices shows 18th consecutive decrease in October
Construction materials prices for All Work fell by 0.8% in the 12 months to October 2024, according to the latest figures published by the Department for Business and Trade. This was a slightly larger decrease than the 0.7% fall seen in the year to September 2024.
New Housing registered a 0.5% increase, Repair and Maintenance was down by 0.1% and Other New Work decreased by 1.7% in the 12 months to October 2024.
Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 1a
The figures demonstrate a continued cooling in materials cost inflation, compared to where prices have been in the last couple of years, albeit with differences in annual movement between some outlier materials, and therefore for different trades.
Flexible pipes and fittings saw the largest annual increase at 17.2%. Fabricated structural steel remained among the materials showing the greatest price decreases compared with October 2023.
Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 2
* DBT advises index values should not be relied upon for long-term contractual purposes, as they are based on relatively few quotes.
On a monthly basis, the most significant price differences were seen in rigid pipes and fittings (-1.4%), electric water heaters (-1.3%) and fabricated structural steel (-1.0%).
DBT’s report also showed concrete block deliveries (seasonally adjusted) were up by 5.2% in the year to October 2024 and up by 0.9% on a monthly basis.
Brick deliveries (seasonally adjusted) increased by 19.0% in the 12 months to October 2024 and increased by 1.5% compared with September 2024. Stocks of all types of bricks at the end of October stood at 473.9 million, which was 15.3% less than at the end of October last year (559.6 million).
By comparison with pre-pandemic activity levels, seasonally adjusted brick deliveries in October 2024 were 24.5% lower than in October 2019, and stocks were 18.4% higher.
Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 9a
Dr David Crosthwaite, Chief Economist at BCIS, said: ‘Building materials price inflation continues to cool as demand stalls and wider inflationary pressures ease.
‘Indeed, there’s evidence of some deflation in the prices for some materials. However, this trend is probably not going to last too much longer as inflation is expected to start rising again in the new year when the effects of the Budget begin to be felt.’
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