New UK homes face more delays from staff, material shortages

[LONDON] Shortages of staff and materials across the country are weighing on construction volumes even as demand for homes remain strong, one of the UK's biggest homebuilders said on Tuesday.

Bellway's output in the first half of the financial year in 2022 will be little changed from the same period a year earlier because of supply chain issues, labour shortages and disruption to fuel supplies, the company said in a statement.

"The board recognises that there are wider economic uncertainties because of Brexit and the continuing pandemic," Group chief executive Jason Honeyman said in the statement. "There remain ongoing constraints in the supply chain and intermittent labour shortages across the sector as, despite the vaccine success, colleagues, subcontractors and suppliers are subject to self-isolation requirements."

Issues across supply chains have hit the construction sector hard, with the UK's exit from the European Union worsening a shortage of builders and drivers, and energy price inflation contributing to spiraling materials costs.

That's putting pressure on a sector where demand has boomed during the pandemic, with asking prices for homes reaching record highs in every part of the country in October.

Bellway said that they have been able to offset the rise in prices of materials such as steel and timber with the overall increase in home prices. The worst of the material price hikes may be subsiding, the homebuilder said in the statement.

BLOOMBERG