1st Quarter 2001 - Materials Supply After a whole year in which very little difference was evident in the accounts given by FMB survey respondents of the supply situation for building materials and products, the first quarter 2001 survey has found an increased level of concern, but one that is associated mainly with two groups of products. For more than a year the highest number of citations for delays in supply recorded by the FMB survey has been for joinery products. This time, although only one firm reports a delay of more than two months, 14 firms, or 3% of the total response both before and after weighting, say they are experiencing delays of more than two weeks and up to two months. What makes the difference, and lifts the total response rate to 9% before and 15% after weighting, is a relatively widespread concern over the availability of plaster, with 5% of the total number of respondents, but 10% of the response after weighting by size of firm, indicating delays of over two weeks. Hopefully this is only a temporary phenomenon. One respondent indicating a delay in the supply of plaster added "before Christmas". Otherwise the only noticeable movement is in the number reporting delays in the supply of bricks, not of specialist or hand-made bricks, for which numbers indicating delays are on a par with those in previous surveys, but rather of Flettons/"LBC bricks" which were not mentioned specifically by any firm at any time in 2000. Sanitary ware is again in next place - fourth this time rather than its more usual third place - in the order of concerns over supply delays. Further Information For further information, please contact: Federation of Master Builders Gordon Fisher House 14-15 Great James Street Holborn London WC1N 3DP Tel: 020 7242 7583 Fax: 020 7404 0296 First posted: 23 April 2001. Last modified: 24 April 2001.