Ready to get going on site, everything lined up, except there鈥檚 no bricks and might not be for several weeks? This would infuriate any builder, but when a delay arises in brick deliveries, whose fault is it? Is there really a shortage of bricks, or is there some other factor at work?
Claims that there is a shortage provoke outraged responses from the brick industry, which says there is nothing of the kind and that its output far exceeds industry needs.
The most recent bout of allegations about brick shortages was kicked off 鈥� rather surprisingly 鈥� by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) in 2016. It said then that brick shortages were a contributory factor to rising house prices, as builders could not meet demand and that an increase in output of 1.4bn bricks was needed.
The NAEA said two-thirds of small and medium-sized construction businesses faced a two-month wait for new brick orders in 2015, with almost a quarter waiting for up to four months and 16% six to eight months.
Things change, but not in straightforward ways. An NAEA spokesperson says now: 鈥淲e are currently seeing no evidence showing a lack of bricks.鈥�
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), however, is seeing such evidence, and so is the National Federation of Builders (NFB). But the Home Builders Federation (HBF) is not, while the Builders Merchants Federation declined to comment and the Brick Development Association (BDA) insists all is well. So there鈥檚 not exactly a consensus on the matter.
Two house-building industry giants though have suggested that bricks are a concern to them.
In its annual results, Taylor Wimpey named brick supply as a business risk, noting: 鈥淲e are assessing alternative build methods to reduce reliance on traditional brick and block techniques and resources鈥ith the growth in house-building, availability of materials is generally in line with demand but there remain pinch points with key products such as bricks, blocks and roof tiles.鈥�
Taylor Wimpey added that the cost of these products 鈥渉as risen significantly and whilst other material costs have been stable in 2017 we are experiencing more cost pressure coming into 2018鈥�.
Answers published by the company from chief executive Pete Redfern during a call with stock market analysts on the results included the observation: 鈥淏rick availability ebbs and flows. It depends which quarter you鈥檙e talking and exactly what kind of bricks. We know exactly where we鈥檙e getting all of our bricks for 2018. We鈥檝e seen prices fall at some parts of the market, particularly imports; we see prices go up in others.鈥�
Persimmon has been concerned enough about the situation to build its own brick factory.
A company statement says: 鈥淧ersimmon is the first UK volume house-builder to invest in its own brick factory and roof tile works. The brick factory has recently been completed and is now producing bricks. Work on building the roof tile factory is now underway.
鈥淲e estimate that when fully operational, both factories will have the capacity to produce around 60% of the business鈥檚 current total requirement of both bricks and roof tiles. Volume has outstripped supply of bricks thanks to an increase in output by house-builders and the industry has struggled to keep up. In response to this, some builders have turned to Europe, but Persimmon has chosen to produce its own products.鈥�
Persimmon鈥檚 1,900m2 facility at Harworth, South Yorkshire, can turn out 80 million bricks a year. The company has said it cost less than 拢10m and its investment would pay back within three years.
Without naming Persimmon, Redfern said during his call that his rival鈥檚 new factory 鈥渁dds some capacity into the market which is not unhelpful鈥�.
These two reactions might make it look as though the volume house-builders are so busy that they cannot source enough bricks to keep pace with their output.
But the HBF, to which the largest firms belong, says: 鈥淭his is not something we have had any feedback on recently. It was an issue a couple of years back but manufacturers seemed to step up and match supply to demand.鈥�
Towards the smaller end of the industry, represented by the FMB and NFB, it鈥檚 a different story. And this matters because the government said in the 2017 housing white paper - and subsequent policy statements - that it wants to encourage SME house-builders to build more homes to try to increase the overall total of house-building. They cannot do so with no bricks.
The government鈥檚 logic is that since volume house-builders have a finite capacity, and if small and medium firms could be enticed back into a house-building market from which consolidation has largely removed them, they would help meet - though not on their own solve - a housing crisis that is an increasing political embarrassment.
FMB policy director Andrew Dixon, who speaks mostly for smaller firms, says: 鈥淏ricks have not been an issue, but are becoming a problem again. It was a big issue in 2014-15 when the housing market picked up quite quickly and clearly manufacturers took a long time to bring plants on stream and there was a strong sense that major house-builders were stockpiling bricks, but by mid-2015 those problems drained away.
鈥淲e have heard in the past few months that waiting times have now gone back to 2014-15 levels which may be because large house-builders have strong order books.
鈥淔MB members tell us that they cannot procure the bricks they need and waiting times for delivery that were 4-8 weeks are now up to 26 weeks from most manufacturers. It adds to the delays in finishing projects and creates uncertainty in the process so it adds to difficulties in getting SMEs more active in house-building as the government wants.鈥�
There is a similar tale of woe from the NFB鈥檚 house-building arm the House Builders Association. Its chair, Paul Knox, managing director of Barnstaple-based Pearce Construction, says: 鈥淲e experience periodic shortages of bricks because, as demand for materials grows and prices increase, suppliers tend to prioritise larger developers over SME house builders.
鈥淭his causes delays to on-going projects, as SMEs have to quickly find alternative ways of sourcing bricks.鈥�
One possible explanation for apparent shortages is that volume house-builders have huge demand and so may deal direct with manufacturers rather than go through merchants, which would appear to give some explanation for why there are complaints from bodies representing smaller firms but not the HBF.
The brick industry was stung by the NAEA鈥檚 campaign in 2016 and nowadays tends to get its retaliation in first.
Statements from the BDA earlier this year said it would take 64 years to count the number of bricks delivered to UK sites in 2017 鈥� supposing anyone should wish to do this. It went on to say that the number of bricks manufactured in the UK rose by 10% in January (compared to the previous January) to hit a 10-year high of two billion. Meanwhile deliveries increased by 9.3%.聽聽
BDA marketing manager Tom Farmer dismisses the NAEA鈥檚 2016 claims as having been 鈥渟trongly refuted as the data did not show any shortage at that date鈥�.
As for the FMB, he says: 鈥淚t does have this habit of pointing the finger at brick every time there is a problem in the supply chain and they use 鈥榖rick鈥� as a sort of shorthand for materials generally so it is difficult to ascertain what the problem is.
鈥淚f you look at National House Building Council (NHBC) figures for increases in housing completions and figures for deliveries of bricks, nothing there looks like a shortage.鈥�
The 9.3% increase in deliveries was, Farmer says, accomplished while the NHBC reported only a 5% rise in completions between 2016 and 2017. 鈥淪o it is difficult to infer from that that they are not keeping pace鈥�.
Although house-builders use a lot of bricks, there is also demand for them from the commercial building and repair, maintenance and improvements (RMI) sectors 鈥渂ut neither look as though they are taking bricks away from housing,鈥� Farmer says, citing Construction Products Association figures showing commercial output up only 3% over the year and that 鈥淩MI is generally thought to be flat鈥�.
Farmer concedes though that there will be supply problems with pinch points in the system.
鈥淚t is true that in an industry with several thousand product lines people may have delays in accessing particularly popular products where there is higher demand than expected,鈥� he says.
This though is not wholly down to the manufacturers, he says, blaming the industry鈥檚 attachment to working on the basis of non-firm orders.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like any other manufacturing process, you wouldn鈥檛 go into a garage with the exact specification of the car you wanted and expect to drive it away there and then, it has to be made,鈥� he says.
The BDA plans to publish a guide to effective procurement for the industry to try to show how pinch points may be overcome.
Even within the brick industry though there is a lack of consensus on whether output is high enough.
Presenting the annual results for Ibstock, one of the largest manufacturers, chief executive Wayne Sheppard said: 鈥淒ue to high demand, brick imports increased strongly as the year progressed, reaching over 300m for the year across the UK market.鈥�
He added: 鈥淚n summary, the UK market consumed circa 2.4bn bricks and UK manufacturers manufactured less than 1.9bn, leaving a deficit of circa 0.5bn bricks that was filled through manufacturer destocking and imports.鈥�
This he said, justified Ibstock鈥檚 decision to build a new brick factory adjacent to its existing one in Leicestershire to provide 100 million additional bricks a year.
Sheppard explained: 鈥淐ustomers are pleased that this new capacity is coming to market particularly as this is soft mud product where the shortage of UK supply is at its most acute. The new factory has been designed to be able to manufacture bricks in a wide range of styles and thus meet almost all customer specifications.鈥�
Manufacturers mothballed some plants when the recession struck in 2008 and not all have come back into use, though Farmer points out that this is not always the best route to getting more capacity and new facilities like those of Ibstock and Persimmon may be more effective.
So, is there a brick shortage? For a smaller firm that lacks the clout to deal directly with manufacturers and wants either a brick type in strong demand, or something unusual of which little is available, then the answer may be 鈥榶es鈥�.
For larger firms and those more switched on about procurement, the answer seems to be 鈥榥ormally not鈥�, although those pinch points may be a problem.
Nevertheless, the extra capacity being built is a vote of confidence in the house-building industry, so maybe brick manufacturers at least have taken the government at its word when it says it wants to ramp up the construction of new homes.
The UK brick industry
In its February 2018 report Brick & Tile Manufacturing in the UK business research firm IBIS World said that the industry has revenue of 拢1.1bn, profit of 拢87.1m and grew 鈥� admittedly from a low post-recession base 鈥� by 10.9% in the period 2013 to 2018. It has forecast growth of 2% for 2018-23.
IBIS World said that Ibstock had a market share of 25.1%, Forterra 24.3% and Wienerberger 19.7%, with other firms making up the remainder.
The Brick Development Association (BDA) boasts that its members between them make almost all the UK鈥檚 clay bricks and pavers, whether these are high-volume lines or one-off products.
Ibstock is the largest, with 22 sites from which it makes more than 600 brick and paver types, and has built a new plant at its main Leicestershire base.
Forterra鈥檚 range includes the original London Brick, and it operates nine manufacturing facilities, with an annual production capacity in excess of 100 million bricks. It has completed a 拢3.2m investment in its Claughton facility in Lancashire, increasing capacity by more than five million bricks a year.
Wienerberger has 14 plants in the UK and says it has more than 1,000 products, though it also works in roofing and landscaping.
These three account for the vast majority of UK brick output. Other BDA members are: Michelmersh, Northcot, Ketley, Yorkshire Handmade Brick Company, Bulmer, Coleford Brick & Tile, WH Collier, Matclad, HG Matthews and Raeburn.
This article was first published in the April 2018 issue of 海角社区app magazine, which you can read for free at
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