Latest building materials and components statistics

Each month the Department for Business and Trade publishes construction material price indices, categorised 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.

BCIS data is used in the compilation of the indices⁽¹⁾.

Annual movement in building materials prices dipped again in January

Construction materials prices for All Work decreased by 0.9% in the 12 months to January 2025, according to the latest figures published by the Department for Business and Trade⁽²⁾.

Materials prices in New Housing registered a 1.0% increase, Repair and Maintenance was up by 1.0% and Other New Work decreased by 2.2% in the same period.

^{Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 1a}

Up to October 2024, the All Work index had seen 17 consecutive months of decreasing annual movement. There was no movement in the 12 months to November 2024, and there have been decreases since December.

Despite an overall cooling in materials cost inflation, compared to where prices have been in the last couple of years, there remains divergent movement for different materials, and therefore for different trades.

The greatest annual increase was seen in other builders’ ironmongery (9.5%), followed by precast concrete: blocks, bricks, tiles and flagstones (6.8%) and precast concrete products (5.1%). Fabricated structural steel remained among the materials showing the greatest price decreases compared with January 2024, with a 10.0% drop.

^{Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 2}

As well as other builders’ ironmongery, the most significant price differences on a monthly basis were seen with imported sawn or planed wood (2.1%), plastic sanitaryware (1.6%) and bituminous mixtures based on natural and artificial stone (1.5%).

DBT’s report also showed concrete block deliveries (seasonally adjusted) were up by 4.2% in the year to January 2025 but down by 1.3% on a monthly basis.

Brick deliveries (seasonally adjusted) increased by 8.5% in the 12 months to January 2025 and increased by 1.0% compared with December 2024. Stocks of all types of bricks at the end of January stood at 489.2 million, which was 5.9% fewer than at the end of January 2024 (519.9 million).

By comparison with pre-pandemic lockdown activity levels, seasonally adjusted brick deliveries in January 2025 were 22.6% lower than in January 2020, and stocks were 10.4% higher.

^{Source: Department for Business & Trade – Building materials and components statistics, Table 9a}

Dr David Crosthwaite, Chief Economist at BCIS, said: ‘Growth in construction materials prices continues to remain flat with a few exceptions, which has coincided with subdued demand growth as borne out by the decline in brick deliveries, which remain below the peak of January 2022. Steel continues to see price falls, but this position is expected to change given the application of trade tariffs going forward’.

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^{(1) Department of Business and Trade – Building materials and components statistics: material price indices methodology  - here}

^{(2) Department of Business and Trade – Building materials and components statistics: January 2025  - here}