Latest building materials and components statistics

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

Building materials prices decrease across the board

Construction materials prices for All Work fell by 1.9% in the 12 months to February 2024, according to the latest figures from the Department for Business and Trade. This was a bigger decrease than the 1.6% drop seen in the year to January 2024.

New Housing registered a 0.6% decrease, Repair and Maintenance was down by 1.4% and Other New Work decreased by 3.0%.

^{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, metal doors and windows and ready-mixed concrete were among the materials showing more than 10% annual growth in the year to February 2024 (20.3%, 17.0% and 11.1% respectively).

Steel concrete rebar and fabricated structural steel continue to show the biggest annual drops (-18.2% and -15.8% respectively) of the materials featured in the dataset.

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

On a monthly basis, the most significant price differences were seen in precast concrete products (5.4%), precast concrete: blocks, bricks, tiles and flagstones (8.7%), and rigid pipes and fittings (-6.2%).

DBT’s report also showed concrete block deliveries were down by 7.5% in the year to February 2024 and up 6.6% on a monthly basis.

Brick deliveries fell by 9.3% in the 12 months to February 2024, and by 0.9% compared with January 2024. Stocks of all types of bricks at the end of February stood at 509.9 million, which was 33.3% higher than at the end of February last year (382.5 million).

BCIS Chief Data Officer, Karl Horton, said: ‘New housing output decreased by 13.8% in the 12 months to February 2024, reflecting the ongoing backdrop of low demand, which we can still see reflected in fewer brick deliveries and higher stocks.

‘Respondents to the S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index survey pointed to slight overall increased activity in March, though the housing sector activity remained broadly unchanged on the previous month. The near-term outlook remains muted while interest rates are high.

‘BCIS forecasts new private housing construction output to contract further this year, before returning to minor growth next year.’

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