The latest sales indicators from the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) reveal a disappointing trend in building materials sales.
The organisation’s figures show that sales nationally rose by just 0.6% for the three months from December 2011 to January 2012 compared with a year earlier. However, they were down 3.7% compared with the preceding three months from September to November 2011.
In February builders merchants’ sales were down 3.6% on the year.
However, some regional trends were more encouraging. In the three months to February 2012, merchants in Yorkshire saw sales rise by 12.1%; in Greater London by 11%; in East Anglia by 8.8%; in the south-west and Wales by 6.1%; and by 1.9% in northern England.
Conversely, in Scotland sales fell 13.5%, followed by East Midlands (-9.1%), the south-east (-5.5%), the West Midlands (-4.2%) and the north-west (-0.6%).
BMF secretary Peter Matthews said it was clear that construction output continued to be fragile.
“It remains to be seen if the recent changes in planning law will open up more housing development, and whether government initiatives such as the Green Deal will bring about an increase in energy-efficient RMI work to give a much needed boost to our sector over the coming year,” he said.
