Has Brexit had a significant impact on the flooring industry? Or is it just a convenient fall guy for the many ills facing the country? David Strydom walks the tightrope…

MORE than six years ago, on 23 June 2016, the UK electorate sent shockwaves through the corridors of power, not just in Europe but around the world. The fact that the margin of victory was slim (52% wanted to leave) made the situation tenuous as many remainers held out hope that they could somehow reverse the result.

Some felt the then prime minister David Cameron let the genie out of the bottle when he had the referendum deploy the usual ‘first past the post’ winning threshold. Others reckoned they’d been lied to during the campaigning. Regardless, while sticks and stones weren’t thrown, countless verbal grenades were indeed hurled by both sides as they either sought to remain in Europe or leave at the earliest opportunity.

Although a close result had always been anticipated, it was widely assumed the referendum would go in favour of remain – surely the British people weren’t foolish enough to abandon their biggest trading partner in favour of becoming a truly independent state?

But the establishment got it wrong – it underestimated the sheer divide between the cosy ‘Westminster bubble’ and its metropolitan tastes and the millions of working class people who’d had enough of being ‘left behind’ by politicians. Leave voters are often mischaracterised as narrow-minded bigots with no understanding of the big issues at play. The truth is that people voted leave for many reasons: some, for sure, to see immigration from the EU ended; others because they resented the fact unelected bureaucrats in Brussels were effectively taking billions of British pounds while making our laws and, in the eyes of many Eurosceptics, stripping away our sovereignty; and yet others as a protest vote against the increasingly remote political elite.

That isn’t to denigrate the strong case for remain – namely the powerful pull of borderless travel, preferential trade, and workers from the EU who filled crucial job vacancies in, among other areas, the NHS, and the construction industry. Overwhelmingly younger people favoured remaining in the EU while many of those over-50 wanted out. That generational divide will come back to haunt the UK, perhaps in less than a generation, as there’ll surely be unrelenting pressure for another poll to take us back in.

But all that is not yet, because on 31 January 2020, the UK formally left the EU after a relentless attempt by a majority remain parliament to undo the result via a ‘people’s vote’. After the UK left, it was obliged to remain in an 11-month transition period (as part of the single market and customs union) which gave both parties more time to sign a fresh trade deal after the agonies of the Theresa May premiership. The EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement was duly signed on 24 December 2020 and came into effect on 31 December, with former PM Boris Johnson saying the £660bn deal would help the UK take control of its own laws while avoiding trade tariffs or quotas.

That said, the question now is: what effect has Brexit had on the country, the construction industry and, more pointedly, the flooring sector? Is it a ‘busted flush’ as one TV presenter recently suggested? Or has it had less negative impact than is often suggested?

One ominous sign is that the former North Sea oil platform expected to open as an art installation during the ‘Festival of Brexit’ to attract tourists to the southwest coast faces further delays.

In 2018 then PM Theresa May promised a national event to ‘showcase what makes our country great’ as Britain left the EU, in what was quickly named the ‘festival of Brexit’. But as The Times recently reported: ‘See Monster, a 450-tonne platform being turned into a comment on the environment, was supposed to open this summer in Weston-super-Mare. It was expected to bring more than 200,000 visitors last month but its opening was delayed by construction problems, and now local residents fear it will not be ready before children go back to school.’

The installation is one of 10 projects selected for the government-funded Unboxed festival, the event formerly known as the Festival of Brexit, which is costing £120m. It’s being delivered by the London-based art studio New Substance.

‘The 35m tall artwork is due to feature an amphitheatre at the top where the shipping forecast will be piped and will also feature two seaside telescopes. It will use its seafront location to harness the power of the elements to provide renewable energy for the structure — energy will be stored overnight in batteries on the structure and used to power it during the day.’

Regardless of this – and the many other things people point at as reasons we shouldn’t have Brexit-ed – it won’t surprise readers that there’s actually no clear answer to the question: ‘Has Brexit worked?’

In fact, even if Covid-19 hadn’t happened, or even if Vladimir Putin hadn’t gone ahead with his savage invasion of Ukraine, I doubt we’d know beyond a shadow of a doubt whether Brexit had harmed us. Just as Brexiteers have clearly exaggerated the ‘sunlit uplands’ that awaited us all on exiting, Europhiles inevitably point out that the UK economy is trailing that of its former EU partners. Per capita income has grown 3.8% since 2016 compared to 8.5% growth in the EU, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The UK-based Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says the long-term impact of Brexit will be worse for the UK economy than Covid-19.

The OBR estimates Brexit will reduce the UK’s potential GDP by 4% and the pandemic by a further 2%. According to estimates from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), when the UK’s GDP grew by 0.9% in November 2021, it was the first time GDP had risen above the pre-pandemic level, increasing by 0.7% compared with February 2020.

Output increased across all three sectors between October and November 2021 with services up by 0.7%, production by 1% and construction by 3.5%. In turn, services and construction output has grown 1.3% above their respective pre-Covid-19 levels while production remains 2.6% below.
While this growth is positive, it’s reportedly behind other advanced economies that have already recovered their Covid-19 GDP losses, including China in October 2020, Australia in June 2021, and the US in July 2021.

Ian Collins, a presenter at TalkTV, probably spoke for many when he said: ‘I never thought Brexit could show any big tangible benefits for at least 10 years. If you’re going to leave an institution in which you’ve been such a big player, then the benefits you want to achieve as a result can’t be neutral, they have to be huge. I don’t agree with the line that whenever something happens – whether it’s a queue at Dover or paperwork that’s gone awry – it’s all down to Brexit. Just think about it: you hear people say: ‘Ooh, Coldplay can’t gig in Europe!’ Well they can, by the way. Are you really meaning to say a group of people can’t get together and say, ‘Can you just sort out this paperwork so Chris and the boys can get over to Munich and Paris?’ Being a member of the EU wasn’t a law of physics; it didn’t mean the minute we left this manmade business/trading arrangement everything would turn to mush. That’s an intellectual nonsense.’

BACK in June 2016 (doesn’t it feel like a lifetime ago now?) I was fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your point-of-view) to be in Belgium, touring prominent Belgian manufacturers with Myles Hazebroek of Select First. Because the UK had just voted to leave, we were able to see up-close the effect this had on the manufacturers. None of it was good.

On the one hand, they were refreshingly straightforward in their responses; on the other, it was difficult not to wince at the very obvious consternation they were feeling at being, effectively, spurned by such an important trading partner.

Nobody I spoke to, in Belgium or the UK, summed up his company’s (and his country’s) concerns as succinctly as Francis Debrabandere, then the UK sales director of Itec IVC. ‘The UK is a large and important market for us and always has been – we ship more than a dozen million square metres of vinyl annually,’ he told me. ‘We’re seriously concerned about the decision to Brexit. It had an immediate impact, we’d lost over £1m by the Friday owing to the exchange rate impacting on outstanding payments. That gives an indication of how significant this decision was. The havoc and upheaval for us and our customers includes reviewing existing agreements and translating those to market conditions.’

Long-term, however, Francis believed in the strength of the UK’s very flexible economy, even if the actions of its political leadership caused concern immediately after the referendum. ‘Hopefully everything will have settled by the end of the year (2016). We’re nervous but I don’t foresee that anxiety lasting longer than the next two years.’

In those surreal days after the referendum, CFJ was able to get the views of many flooring companies. For instance EcoTile Flooring, a UK-based manufacturer of interlocking floor tiles, told us that about 40% of the tiles it manufactures are exported to the EU, 10% to the rest of the world and the balance fulfilling its UK orders ‘so the vote to leave the EU could potentially have serious ramifications for us’. However managing director James Gedye said: ‘Yes, we’ll have to adapt and I’m investigating the option of opening a warehouse and logistics facility in the EU to help us deal with obstacles Brexit may cause but I was considering this option pre-Brexit anyway to try and improve efficiency and reduce transport costs. As the saying goes nothing is a problem, just an opportunity for a solution. The UK leaving the EU opens up the chance for us to make a real difference to what we want our country to be and to define our own future.’

Steve Urwin, marketing manager at Tarkett UK, said ‘the UK’s choice to leave the EU is a regrettable one and, of course, we’re seeing the economic impact already. The uncertainty in the market about the longer-term prospects and possible recession is obviously affecting the construction industry’.

However he added that Tarkett is fortunate in its extensive product portfolio which allows it to serve pretty much every market segment. ‘We expect the longer term impact for us to be a shift in product mix, as we engage in more housing and private sector projects. Our UK manufacturing base in Lenham, Kent is focused for the most part on making the Safetred safety floor collections, most of which is sold into the UK anyway so exporting to the EU isn’t an issue right now for us. In short, we remain cautiously positive.’

There was also Marcus Bentley, ceo of Solus Ceramics, who said: ‘I think most businesses in the UK, large or small, were hoping to remain part of the EU, and I was certainly in that camp. Businesses and financial markets don’t like uncertainty as this creates nervousness and hits confidence, which is unwelcome so soon after the financial credit crisis and subsequent recession that followed.’

He concluded: ‘A growing part of our business over the past few years has been our exports, with some large corporate accounts being supplied into Europe and throughout the world. I don’t see Brexit having an impact on this, as long as the Europeans are still able to trade freely with us. I don’t believe a vote to leave the EU was the right one for businesses in general, but the democratic process has spoken and now is the time for strong positive leadership. Change creates opportunity and we’ll seek out those opportunities and continue to invest for sustained business growth.’

Steve Grimwood, managing director of Osmo UK, said: ‘As an international company, Osmo has a great relationship with Europe thanks to our European partners and regular buyers. While the outcome of Brexit was unexpected, we’re confident the industry will overcome this hurdle.
Osmo will continue trading, working, and buying as normal and I believe the industry should do the same to prevent any further uncertainty. The quality of Osmo products won’t change and we’ll continue trading with British and European customers as normal.’

And Paul Barratt, managing director at Karndean Designflooring added: ‘Obvious impacts such as the devaluation of the pound will of course have an impact on the industry, but with adequate hedging this can be mitigated until the foreign exchange markets gain stability. In Europe specifically, our design-flooring business continues to thrive and we’re not expecting this to stop owing to market conditions. Similar to other EU trading companies, Brexit will make things more challenging for the industry, but it’s very much business-as-usual.’

FOR the purposes of this article, I spoke to three major flooring manufacturers active in the UK, to see if the dust had settled on Brexit. None wanted to be quoted on the record, but all were prepared to make anonymous comments. The first one, which manufacturers in Scotland, told me: ‘Brexit, at least for UK businesses, has been positive. In terms of its impact for continental Europe, it’s affected logistics because there’s much more paperwork which has caused challenges such as queuing lorries. We aren’t alone but that doesn’t preclude the fact we’ve all been affected. It’s been a curate’s egg – great for one part of our business but it’s also had a negative impact.’

The second manufacturer was more certain about Brexit’s impact. ‘The two key areas that have or have the potential to create the greatest impact on UK supply and flow of goods, import and export, are increased costs owing to additional time to fulfil regulation compliance placed on logistics and transport, and unplanned delays at ports owing to customs checks.’

Increased costs have been well documented in the media and with inflation now spiralling out of control, this manufacturer told me. ‘The uncertainty of delays affects customers with late deliveries but also suppliers with additional admin costs to rearrange dates. If you wanted a simple analogy, an individual coming or going through passport control previously had free access with no delays, just walked through. Now, we can be subjected to long delays and extra checks as seen at some airports and stations.’

The representative from the final manufacturer told me fellow manufacturers were being affected and that it made it more difficult to deal with because of bureaucracy and paperwork. ‘It’s harder to do business and it’ll have an effect on the UK economy. Many say Brexit hasn’t harmed the economy, but it’s harm will eventually be shown.’

Over the past year, we’ve profiled several contractors and their opinions are often at odds with manufacturers – a pattern I’ve seen repeated many times since the referendum. In addition, they’re often happier to go on the record than manufacturers. In late 2021 we reported that Nick Perkins, sales director at Loughton Contracts, seemed unphased by Brexit as the firm hadn’t been massively affected. ‘There were a few hiccups towards the end of the year at the start of 2021, but nothing that was an absolute showstopper. We’re starting to see price increases in certain areas – mainly relating to freight costs as they’re currently going through the roof.’

Nick pointed out that while labour resources were holding up, he was aware the construction industry relies on foreign workers and was hopeful they’d stay in the UK. ‘There have been a few we know that have taken the decision to leave which is a real shame. But Brexit hasn’t had any effect on projects going forward and I don’t anticipate that changing.’

Then there was Graham Jefferson of Lincolnshire Flooring who said that although his company hadn’t been hit by Brexit, the shortage of lorry drivers was most definitely having an effect. ‘Deliveries can be spasmodic; the flow of material and the stability in pricing is something that was without doubt not publicised enough or discussed when the campaign for stay or leave was debated.’

Neil McGuckin, managing director of Oakvale Flooring, described Brexit as ‘a bit of a sea change for certain parts of our business. Some companies who we bought epoxy primers/DPMs from simply wouldn’t, or couldn’t, get the materials to us, so we had to change supplier which increased costs. Others who we relied on for next day deliveries were now quoting a minimum of three days, so we’ve had to increase stock of certain items which means more cash flow tied up’.

Neil told CFJ his main concern was the large increase in lead times and costs in relation to products coming from many manufacturers and suppliers from mainland Europe who use the UK land bridge to supply Ireland. He explained that ‘one French supplier, who we buy from, who would usually take one week to deliver is now taking two to three weeks… and the cost of haulage has tripled’.

The net effect of this, said Neil, was that ‘it’s had a large knock-on effect for our bespoke projects.
The delays are one thing, but if we’re doing a 100sq m special order for a client, and the haulage is now three times more expensive, we can’t build that all into the price or it might be prohibitive – so we have to swallow a portion of it’. Fundamentally, he said Brexit, haulage rates and supply issues ‘are driving costs up across many supply chains and it’s certainly affected our business’.

In fact, he went on to say that these ‘rising costs have put off some people I know from going ahead with extensions or newbuilds as they can’t properly budget for what the project will take to complete. Some customers, with large installs, have reduced quantities and replaced them with more economical solutions, or they’ve said they’ll revisit next year with the hope that costs may have settled down. It’s all very uncertain at the minute as to how things will progress’.

When I interviewed Jordan McRobie, commercial director of Belper-based Shire Flooring, earlier this year he pointed out that his company had been a mere two-months-old when Brexit happened. ‘At the start, we thought: ‘How’s this going to affect us when it actually happens?’, Jordan recalled. ‘The inevitable pushback from the EU and the amount of work required for the changing of rules, played on my mind. We were just about to enter into contracts when Brexit was triggered and the biggest worry was: ‘How is this going to affect material supply? Are prices going to double overnight?’
Nonetheless, because we were so new and small we reckoned we could roll with the punches. Once Covid-19 emerged, Brexit seemed to fade into the background.’

Jordan said Brexit may have had a lucky escape in this regard: ‘Because Covid-19 hit only three months after Brexit went through, many people blame the pandemic for supply issues. In that respect, some problems that would’ve been attributed to Brexit are now blamed on Covid-19.’
Ben Kemm, md of Luton-based Rinbale Carpets said Brexit may well have been and gone for many, but it would maintain an influence on the UK for some time. ‘Brexit,’ he said, ‘brought a nervousness and reticence to the industry as a whole – largescale projects were put on hold as companies re-evaluated their strategic decisions that were perhaps outlined pre-Brexit.’

However, he felt most of these projects seemed to be back on track. ‘On the whole,’ he said, ‘I don’t feel it’s something we’ve been massively affected by just yet.’ That said, he’d noticed some manufacturers and suppliers increasing prices, ‘but I think given the pandemic as well, that was an inevitable repercussion – everyone is trying to recoup lost sales and for our industry, I guess that was one place to start’.

There’s one aspect of Brexit he said he worried about – that most of the health and safety regulations in the UK flooring industry were dictated by the EU. On this he said ‘it will take time to see the impact this has. We’re yet to see if the industry will continue to follow EU standards – or if government will introduce its own legislation’.

One contractor who was particularly outspoken about Brexit was Glen Tonkin, managing director of Kingussie-based Toncam, who described it as ‘a disaster if I’m brutally honest. For it to fall at the same time as the Covid-19 pandemic – you honestly couldn’t make it up. It was hard enough with the uncertainty of that, let alone Brexit being thrown into the mix’.

From his standpoint, Glen said he’d seen an increase in costs especially where imports were concerned. He stated what was patently obvious: ‘These costs can’t be swallowed so unfortunately it means higher prices for consumers. Further, there’s a shortage of various raw materials which not only has increased costs but also lead times on products.’

He pointed out that Toncam had faced at least three or four price increases already since Brexit. Further, the uncertainty of working with certain suppliers had affected the business.

Worryingly, the company had built up some solid relationships which Glen said were just no longer sustainable owing to various Brexit-related factors. This meant the company spent more, and expended time, energy and money finding replacements for them – ‘it feels almost like you’re working two to three times as hard to just generate the same sort of turnover and profit as before’.
But he was sanguine and thought this situation would ‘eventually iron itself out as these things always do – but I’m yet to see any real benefits of Brexit if I’m being honest’.

Tim Peal of Essex-based Millside Floors felt on the other hand that Brexit had done him a favour as he’d been able to earn more. ‘Fitting rates,’ he said, ‘had remained static for many years, but I noticed after Brexit that rates appeared to be firming up and I’ve certainly felt much more confident in increasing my fitting rates by 50-70% over the past three to five years. The pandemic combined with Brexit appeared to be very good for an installer like myself. After the initial five weeks of shutdown, I’d never been busier – the effect of people not being able to go on holiday was that they spent money on their homes instead.’

Having said that, Tim had noticed, at the time of talking to CFJ, that enquiries had dropped off a bit.
Gary Anthony, md of Nottinghamshire based Willowbank Contracts, noted that Brexit hadn’t had a direct impact on contracts being awarded to Willowbank. In fact, if anything, he said ‘we’re busier than ever’. That said, he noted his suppliers were having issues with sourcing materials that are made outside of the UK. He’d also noticed that there have been price increases in materials, but Gary put some of this down to Covid-19. During lockdown the business was closed for two months and furlough was claimed as needed.

For his part, Rob Scott, md of London-based Piper Hales Flooring, felt that Brexit (in tandem with Covid-19) had caused a general shortage of, and greater demand for, labour.’ He noted, that while his company was fine, compatriots often asked if he had anyone spare – he laid part of the blame for this on a lack of youth entering the sector.

As for Brexit affecting Piper Hales’ business, Rob said he’d started to see the effects of the UK’s departure from Europe with prices rising. Worse, most of his suppliers were suggesting further rises in material costs. He said, however: ‘As a company we try to plan ahead as we’ve secured work, so we’ve been ordering in material far earlier than we have in the past. This has worked extremely well throughout last year and has avoided delays with bought-in goods.’

Marsh McLennan, which has offices in more than 130 countries, and which describes itself as an insurance broker and risk advisor, provides industry-focused brokerage, consulting, and claims advocacy services, leveraging data, technology, and analytics. The organisation issued a white paper entitled ‘Brexit one year on: What has been the effect on UK construction?’ for which it commissioned research to discover the extent of the effect Brexit has had on UK construction in the run up to the withdrawal from the EU, and during the subsequent months.

The company said: ‘This has led to the conclusion that, while there’s no doubt it has presented a multi-faceted challenge to construction firms and been the key driver in some instances, it’s proved harder to quantify the extent it has played in other issues, owing to the disruption caused by Covid-19.’

With respect to materials price increases and availability, Marsh’s paper notes that the UK is a net importer of materials, with roughly 60% of imported materials used in construction projects coming from the EU. The surge in demand, triggered by the Covid-19 recovery stimulus plans, exerted continuous pressure on supply chains to deliver products.

Said the paper: ‘Although there are no tariffs on the movement of goods between the UK and EU under the TCA, suppliers have to meet relevant rules of origin for their products. Additional border checks and ‘red tape’ have increased lead times and administrative costs. Further layers of complexity have arisen through the imposition of VAT on imports and exports, and the need for importers and exporters to have an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number for both customers and VAT documentation (and sometimes more than one, depending on where they import and export to). The Construction Services Domestic Reverse Charge (CSDRC) rules for VAT, which came into force on 1 March 2021, have also increased the administrative burden.

Congestion at UK ports, caused by the national shortage of haulage drivers (exacerbated by a Brexit-related exodus of workers), has caused serious delays, increasing prices as construction firms compete for dwindling resources.’

TODAY, the biggest issue with white papers and other statistical data is that events are moving so quickly nobody can keep up. They become obsolete almost as soon as they are published. Every month there’s new data that changes the country’s economic landscape – whether that’s inflation and interest rates going up; GDP figures going down; or optimism in the state of the economy plummeting like a stone.

Another problem is that Brexit simply cannot be analysed in isolation – the waters have been too muddied by the pandemic, which followed hot on the heels of parliament ratifying Brexit, and by the Ukrainian invasion which has played havoc with the global economy as well as introducing the terrifying concept of a new world war.

Labour shortages have often been blamed on Brexit, but this makes no sense when one considers how badly EU countries, particularly in southern Europe, have been hit. As the Financial Times reported, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal all saw a shrinking workforce which threatened to jeopardise the effectiveness of the EU’s landmark €750bn Covid recovery fund, which has a major focus on infrastructure investment.

‘The infrastructure projects funded by the EU’s recovery facility, which have a specific deadline for their completion, will face great challenges,’ the paper quoted Giorgos Stasinos, president of the Technical Chamber of Greece, the government’s engineering advisory body, as saying.

The higher wages commanded by workers, many in specialist roles such as welding, will be a burden on many projects, said the civil engineer. ‘With the increased salary costs, budgets will also need to be increased in order to complete the projects on time,’ Stasinos added.

The FT concluded: ‘In Italy, which is the largest recipient of funds from Brussels’s Covid recovery plan, the national builders’ association ANCE estimated at the end of 2021 that its members needed another 265,000 construction workers just to complete current projects.’

All this gives us a very unclear picture of just how much Brexit is to blame. However, of one thing there is certainty: most people who voted Brexit never minded a bit of economic shrinkage, feeling it was worth it to regain their sovereignty. So when economists, analysts and other business-minded people and organisations, state that Brexit was an act of economic self-harm, their words are falling on deaf ears – at least when it comes to Eurosceptics.

To complete the picture of Brexit’s effect on construction (and therefore flooring and skills), it’s instructive to turn to BuildSafe, an independent provider of structural warranties (latent defects insurance) which provide a range of insurance solutions that allow a property developer to overcome a number of hurdles for projects, and which recently produced a special report on the impact of Brexit on the construction industry.

BuildSafe quotes a poll conducted by Smith and Williamson before the EU referendum which indicated only 15% of people in the construction industry wanted to leave the EU. An argument proposed for leaving was the fact it would lower the cost of bureaucracy, and this would end up covering the cost of leaving the EU. But has this really been the result?

The firm looks at skills shortages first, noting: ‘As Covid-19 restrictions were eased in the UK, the economy was able to recover, and construction projects around the country resumed. This exposed a major shortage of skilled and unskilled labourers in the construction sector. With the UK being an EU member state, the sector could rely on the free movement of workers from other European countries. However, this would end with Brexit.’

It’s worth noting the Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) Construction Skills Network estimates close to a million construction workers are set to retire in the next 10 years, and this will significantly impact the industry, continues BuildSafe.

‘Government has been trying to boost the number of local workers entering the construction sector. However, this is unlikely to cover the number of workers needed over the next few years. This issue is further complicated by the increase in ambitious construction projects in the UK. Before Brexit, about 40% of all construction workers in the UK came from other EU countries. Now, such workers are unlikely to get visas to work in the country as the UK has introduced a points-based immigration system. This system was crafted by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and requires workers to score a total of 70 points in order to work in the country. Government may also require employers to show they have a genuine vacancy, and companies may also need to sponsor workers from the European Economic Area (EEA). At the same time, people coming to work in the country will need to pass an English test. This will raise the cost of hiring workers from other European countries and may not do much to ease the worker shortage in the country.’

BuildSafe addressed the question of how government can deal with the skills shortage in the country. ‘Government is currently trying to find solutions to the labour shortage in the UK. One proposed measure is to revise the points-based immigration system, as this currently secures the rights of skilled workers only. To prevent construction projects from being ground to a halt, the system should promote the immigration of unskilled workers such as drivers. Government can also encourage citizens to train as construction workers, especially since lots of workers are set to retire over the next few years.’

BuildSafe concludes: ‘The construction sector is a major contributor to the UK economy. It generates about £90bn every year, and this makes up about 7% of the GDP of the country. It also employs more than 3 million people. As such, it’s important for government to ensure construction projects are running smoothly in the country. After Brexit, construction companies have been suffering because of skills shortages and materials shortages. These issues have been further worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the moment, construction projects have very high costs, and this has especially been a challenge for smaller construction companies. However, the situation is improving slowly.’