The construction industry has undergone almost unprecedented change over the past two years. The pandemic changed how people work, probably permanently, and compelled many to reevaluate their priorities. This is having an impact on the office sector and on the types of homes demanded. The disruption caused by covid is having a knock-on effect on materials availability and prices, affecting specifiers and contractors alike. Brexit is likely to continue to dent materials availability, with full customs declarations implemented from the beginning of 2022. The introduction of the UKCA mark in January 2023 could cause further disruption, because the new certification requires expensive testing and the UK lacks test capacity.

Other challenges include meeting net zero targets, which is making many specifiers think for the first time about the whole-life carbon impacts of projects, including materials. And the industry is still grappling with the fallout from the Grenfell disaster, which has changed building regulations and made many insurers and lenders wary of buildings with timber structures. This can make it more difficult to meet net zero targets.

We asked over 300 architects from a wide range of practices about the challenges they are facing and the impact on product specification, the information they use to make specification decisions, and how much trust they have in the information provided by manufacturers and others in the industry.

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