Scotland builders share views on material shortages

Listening and engaging directly with members is invaluable. Of course, FMB surveys, especially our quarterly State of Trade Survey, have an essential role in helping to sharpen our advocacy work or amplify our voice on behalf of members. Still, this doesn’t compare to personal engagement.

From both the Scotland member zoom meeting in October and a brief meeting with the FMB Scotland Board, it is clear that material prices and long lead times are leading to project delays. The ongoing skills shortages and resultant wage inflation is affecting members in several regions of Scotland. Yet, workloads and current demand remain buoyant. Given the ongoing shortages of labour and materials, it is fulfilling this demand, which has proved to be the biggest bane for builders. We continue to voice these realities to policymakers and the media across the UK.

Member feedback shared with the Scottish Building Standards Division

Some members voiced their experiences directly to the Scottish Government’s Building Standards Division (BSD). The discussion session was on the current energy review within the building regulations and the impacts of affordable housing delivery in rural and island communities. The BSD was keen to hear from the FMB on the potential impact on smaller housebuilders and contractors based in rural areas and on our islands. My thanks to Colin Wood from Malcolm Allan Housebuilders in Aberdeenshire, Mark MacDonald from O’Mac Construction Limited in Stornoway and Peter Tait from DITT Construction in Shetland for their contributions. If you would like to find out more about this discussion, please get in touch.

Share your views with the FMB Scotland Board

Looking ahead, the FMB Scotland Board next meet on 15 December. We will hear from Sarah Buchanan of the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre on delivering retrofit and how local construction firms can play their part. Here’s a summary of what we discussed in September. If you would like to flag anything for the Board’s attention, please get in touch.

Join us for our next Scotland member Zoom call

The FMB runs informal virtual meetings for Scotland members on the last Wednesday of every month. This is an opportunity for you to network with other members and voice your concerns and ideas. Challenges with clients, materials, apprentices, and business growth are some of the topics which have been shared during our Zoom meetings. The meetings also help the FMB to listen to and engage more effectively with members right across Scotland.

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

Read lessmore