Shortages Of Bricks And Bricklayers: Factors That Are Slowing Uk House Building

By Author: Bradley Weiss
Total Articles: 272
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The Great Recession continues to slow England’s return to full home building with limited material and labour capacity. There are creative solutions, however.



There is a multitude of reasons cited for the housing shortage in the UK. One is a shortage of UK land, or more specifically land that is approved for building. Second, the financial crisis of 2008 has residual effects on younger families who have difficulty mustering the required deposit to buy a home. Third, as many as one million British households are waiting for homes that, as of now, do not exist.



But for all the UK land investment groups and Government programmes designed to address these shortages, there are emerging yet other key shortages: there aren’t enough bricks and bricklayers needed to build new homes.



The Guardian reported in April 2015 that, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), “members are already struggling to get the skills and materials they need to meet demand.” And truth be told, while the brick/bricklayer ...
... shortage is most critical – an FMB survey found that fully 50 per cent of construction firms report difficulty at recruiting bricklayers in the past year – there is a skills shortage across the building trades: carpenters/joiners, plumbers and HVAC trades, supervisors, site managers, plasterers, roofers and civil engineering operatives are all in short supply.



The industry warned of a skills time bomb during the recession, as hundreds of thousands of workers left their professions simply due to a lack of work. Making things worse, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) projects that a significant number of workers, 400,000 people, will retire in the next five years.



From the materials side, the Brick Development Association, the brick makers trade group, says the recession played a role in shortages there as well, as production facilities were mothballed in the years following 2008. Returning those facilities to production takes investment that some plants are unwilling to make without greater certainty about Government supports of the market, say industry officials. Long waiting times and rising prices plague the industry, with 62 per cent of construction companies waiting at least two months for order delivery; some order backlogs are as long as six months. Even with a 17 per cent increase in capacity in 2014, about 20 per cent of the nation’s bricks used were imported from the Netherlands and Belgium.



The problem is more pronounced in some regions than in others. Investors working through real asset management groups factor this into their planning of residential developments, as timing on delivery is a critical component of how their investments perform. There is some indication that national homebuilders have a advantage in that they are able to source skilled labour and building materials faster than smaller construction firms.



One solution that could be a real asset in the national campaign to add to the housing stock might be found in modular housing. Built off-site and delivered by lorry to the home site, modular buildings offer faster construction and therefore a faster return on investment to investors and managers. Because modules are manufactured indoors weather is removed as a factor, as is the risk of mould, mildew and rust. Modular homes are judged to be greener due to less waste in materials and less site disturbance where assembled, and are reportedly less expensive to build as compared to traditional building methods. Modular homes are made of wood frame walls, floors and roofs, sometimes with brick or stone exteriors. The method is used for private house building, housing associations, student accommodations, residential care homes, hotels, disaster relief accommodation and holiday homes, however about 80 per cent of London’s highest structure, The Shard, was built off-site using similar methodology. Only about 20 modular home manufacturers currently exist in the UK.



So as England deals with its shortages of homes, the supply chain and asset management of money, land, materials and labour, all such factors play a role in helping alleviate the shortage. Given the promises of politicians of all stripes in the 2015 election, land investment groups as well as the Government have a good amount of incentive to put every tool to work as soon as possible.



That stated, all investments should be approached with objectivity. Speak first with an independent financial advisor about your interest in housing, land and related assets.