A shortage of bricks has helped push up house prices, the National Association of Estate Agents claimed this morning, and could lead to a “lifetime” of high house prices and falling levels of home ownership.
The organisation said that the UK needs 1.4bn bricks in order to resolve the housing shortage.
That is the equivalent of the total amount which would be needed to build all the houses currently in Leicestershire.
However, the NAEA claims that Brexit could worsen the issue, because 85% of clay and cement comes to Britain from the EU.
The claims are made in a Bricks Report compiled by the NAEA with the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The report says that two-thirds of small and medium-sized construction businesses faced a two-month wait for new brick orders last year, with almost a quarter waiting for up to four months and one in six waiting six to eight months.
Mark Hayward, NAEA managing director, said: “We’re concerned that the impact of the EU referendum means this problem could get worse as we rely on the import of brick components from the EU and of course many of our skilled labourers come from there too.”
He added: “Until this is addressed, we might as well resign ourselves to a lifetime of astronomical prices and falling levels of home ownership.”
Meanwhile, separate analysis by Capital Economics commissioned by Shelter warned that the Government will be 266,000 homes short of its 1m homes target by 2020.
The projections warn of an 8% fall in house building over the next year, as post-referendum uncertainty puts the breaks on the big house builders. As a result, if the current trajectory continues, by 2020 we still won’t be building as many homes as before the 2008 crash.
Oh come on please! Let me guess there is also a lack of sand in North Africa. 99% of BMWs, Fiats and Porsches seem to arrive from Europe as well but I don’t see any lack of supply.
Sorry. This is a silly season, non story.
The reason that there is a brick shortage is the builders don’t need them as much as they did since they are now going to be building 8% less homes over the next few years.
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Chris will be doing his nut at this story, so for balance, here you go: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-36722295
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Then let’s start to rebuild our manufacturing industry post-Brexit by making a few more bricks!
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-36722295
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Man walks past a jewellers. Wife spots beautiful ring. “Oh My Goodness, I love it!” Then it shall be yours, he says. Pulls a brick out his back pocket, chucks it through the window, grabs the ring, puts it on her finger. She’s beaming.
Another jewellers. A necklace. “Honey…”. Man smiles, pulls brick out of jacket pocket, hurls it through window. Lovingly places necklace on her.
Barely a hundred yards. A pair of diamond ear-rings. Wife looks over…
Man says, “Bl00dy hell… I’m not made of bricks.“
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Nothing to do with mothballing all the brick manufacturing facilities in 2008 when the builders stopped building houses and then realising that recommissioning them, increasing supply and bringing down the price of bricks made no sense at all.
Dear Board of directors, I propose we spend a shed load of cash reemploying staff we laid off, repairing and reinstating infrastructure just so we can charge less for bricks!
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Methinks the NAEA need to be more worried about the long-term effect on the housing market caused by Bricks that are woefully unfit for purpose…
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Awesome PeeBee 🙂
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I try… ;o)
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Beautifully put!
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Eamonn – it’s been a few days since it was last rolled out – I now beg you to use your catchphrase…
…aimed specifically at the MD of NAEA.
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Must be off for the Bank Holiday.
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Not quite six degrees of separation but:
Brexit > Brixit > Bricksgone > Headsgone
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This is a press release from a man trying to sound clever in a fool hardy attempt to justify his organisations subscription fees.
Mr Hayward.l. I give you the #HeadsGone award for today.
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Eamonn
Your input is genuinely welcomed and appreciated!
;o)
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Anyone for starting a brick company ? …. I have it on good authority from some guy that reckons he’s in the know that there is likely to be mega load of customers coming soon!
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“……. commissioned by Shelter warned that the Government will be 266,000 homes short of its 1m homes target by 2020”. So we shall see them all living on park benches then? or just maybe the hand that helps them, that they despise will come to the rescue …. Private landlords.
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Not usually one to post a link to another site – but this one’s 100% relevant:
http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/brick-makers-rail-against-estate-agents-claims
Maybe – just maybe – a call to the BDA might have been in order before releasing the statement, Mr Hayward…
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