Rising costs ‘are holding back small builders’

Small and medium-sized housebuilders are struggling with a sharp rise in costs for materials, according to the Federation of Master Builders. Britain’s largest trade association for the construction industry said that nearly all small housebuilders had reported that the cost of construction materials, such as timber and bricks, had risen in the first three months of the year. A boom in housebuilding has led to longer supply times and rising prices for construction material as demand increases faster than vendors can match. At the same time, rising inflation has pushed up the cost of imports such as timber. Click here for the full Times article (£)