Inflation is back and it appears to be here to stay. According to the latest figures released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, year-on-year price rises for construction materials hit 24.5% in March, significantly outstripping the economy-wide 7% that the CPI recorded in the same month and adding further grief for firms. While this has meant a boom for material manufacturers, contractors have been on the sharp end.

Lacking economies of scale and working with tight margins, subcontractors and specialists have felt the pressure of spiralling costs even more starkly than their larger peers. Noble Francis, economic director at the Construction Products Association (CPA), says that due to their strong relationships with manufacturers and priority as bigger customers, major housebuilders and contractors can more easily plan and purchase materials in advance and at scale, thereby keeping their inflation bill down.

“The ones who can’t do that are the ones who are smaller specialist contractors,” he says. “They can’t plan and purchase six to nine months in advance because they don’t know what demand is going to be like.

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