Matthew Farrow, director of policy for the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) comments on the latest IHS Markit / CIPS UK Construction PMI release:

“The figures reflect growing confidence in the UK economy and the construction industry which is, of course, welcome. However, it is clear that the severe shortage of products and materials, as well as issues around transportation, are now having an adverse effect on lead times and putting inflationary pressure on prices.

“There is no easy fix to this problem, other than medium to long-term changes in our approach – I would hope that this leads to smarter design through the use of alternative materials, which could also have the added benefit of creating less carbon intensive buildings and structures and accelerating our path to Net Zero.”