NEWS | DIGEST Strongest growth for 24 years overwhelms supply chains IN BRIEF Nabers UK announces national committee CIBSE is among eight industry bodies to be selected as stakeholder members on the Nabers UK National Steering Committee. While the members are non-voting, they will provide feedback and advice to scheme administrators BRE Group, to ensure Nabers UK delivers against the needs of the commercial realestate industry. The members and their representatives are: BCO, Peter Williams, technical adviser, Stanhope; BPF, Alex Green, assistant director; BSRIA, Michelle Agha-Hossein, building performance and soft landings lead; CIBSE, Julie Godefroy, technical manager; IWFM, David Hemming, CEO, CETEC; RIBA; RICS, Paul Bagust, head of property standards; and UKGBC, Karl Desai, senior adviser. Shortages of transport capacity and long wait times for items sourced from abroad are causing delays Material shortages are putting huge pressure on supply chains as construction product buyers report their fastest increase in activity for almost a quarter of a century. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI Total Activity Index soared to 66.3 in June, up from 64.2 in May its fastest growth spurt for 24 years. However, delivery lead times are Stock levels have not been able to keep up with demand for materials for residential projects and a boost to commercial work from the reopening of the UK economy. Moore added that supply chains could not keep up with demand, with lead times at their longest since the survey began in April 1997. Survey respondents widely reported delays because of low stocks of building materials, shortages of transport capacity and long wait times for items sourced from abroad. Escalating cost pressures and concerns about labour availability appear to have constrained business optimism at some Contract flexibility can help in volatile market The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has urged the industry to be flexible and work together to deal with potential contractual problems caused by volatile market conditions. In an open letter to industry leaders, co-chair Andy Mitchell said CLC and government guidance created in the early stages of the pandemic could help. Most forms of construction contract have standard provisions for managing volatility, without the need to make contract amendments, he wrote. These provisions such as fluctuations provisions in JCT and NEC 4 Secondary XI provide a means of collaboratively sharing the risks associated with this volatility. Cladding installer scheme developed A certification scheme to improve the process for installing cladding systems has been developed by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) . The first pilot of the independent cladding installer certification scheme improved operatives knowledge and understanding of rainscreen cladding systems by 11%, according to NFRC. It was developed by the NFRCs RoofCERT, a CITB-funded project set up to provide a proof of concept for an accreditation scheme. extremely stretched and price increases have hit record levels. According to researchers, the surge in new orders overwhelmed supply chains to the point where stock levels could not keep up with building work that was accelerating at its fastest rate since June 1997. June data signalled another rapid increase in UK construction output as housing, commercial and civil engineering activity all expanded at a brisk pace, said IHS Markit economics director Tim Moore. Total new orders grew at one of the strongest rates since the summer of sentiment towards the year-ahead growth outlook remained high, but eased to its lowest since the start of 2021, said Moore. Gummer: Scrap VAT on retrofits projects free from VAT to promote the repurposing of buildings. Former Environment Minister John Gummer told the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee that changing the VAT balance would encourage a more sustainable approach to build construction is VAT-free. He said the government should be leading on the issue of reuse rather than demolition of buildings and added that when people refurbished a building they should also be required to carry out another improvement to further enhance its overall performance. The government really ought to have a rule that says it is not going to procure new buildings; what it is going to do is seek to improve old buildings so that, in each case, it is making a contribution to the future of the nation, Gummer, now Lord Deben, told the committee. If it did that, it would begin to set the example to other businesses and groups that make these choices. Lord Deben called for the planning system to be reformed to help create new zero carbon buildings, as this would place greater emphasis on the reuse of buildings to cut embodied carbon. He criticised the government for not recognising the importance of embodied carbon in its Future Homes Standard, adding that there was evidence some companies have been seeking to slow the whole thing down. A million homes have been built since the government at the time reversed the policy on carbon- indeed, it may have been nothing at all. 10 August 2021 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Aug 21 pp10 News.indd 10 23/07/2021 11:53