By Russell Yates, managing director, AluK and president of CAB.

Last month in Glass Times, I issued a rallying call to the industry for us to come together in a campaign to lobby the government for some kind of industry support or stimulus.

It clearly struck a chord with many. When we posted the article on LinkedIn, it had more than 100 responses, comments and reposts from industry colleagues and competitors and we’ve already got nearly 20 AluK customers engaged with the campaign.

In May, I pointed out that difficult economic headwinds had been made worse by the war in Iran and now, just a month later, we’re having to cope with instability at the top of government which is spooking investors and doing nothing for consumer confidence.

Whatever your political views, you can’t argue with the fact that the government has so far failed in its commitment to ‘build, baby, build’. According to the last Ministry of Housing assessment, it’s on course to fall short of its target of 1.5 million new homes this parliament by a massive 400,000 – and only a small proportion of that can be attributed to planning delays.

Raw material and energy costs are still rising and mortgage rates which were predicted to start falling this year have been going up instead.

The Construction Products Association’s latest forecasts, just released by CAB to its members, highlight the real scale of the crisis. In 2026, private housing volumes are predicted to fall 7%, with repair and maintenance down 3%, and the commercial sector down 3.7%. Things are not expected to stabilise until 2027, but even then, any growth next year is likely to be limited to between 1 and 2%.

There was plenty of optimism up until the start of this year that things were going to improve on the back of pent up demand, but the mood now feels much flatter because the pain is already being felt. Retail and hospitality are much more vocal than construction in calling for government support for our high streets, but recent official statistics reported by The Times show that our industry faces even greater challenges.

In the year to February 2026, there were 3,851 construction insolvencies, compared to 3,652 in retail and 3,304 in hospitality.

Right across the industry, we’re all working harder than ever to grow our businesses, deliver the kind of innovation that’s required to meet the Future Homes challenge and recruit, train and retain skilled staff.

I certainly think we need to be shouting louder and in a more coordinated way about what a fantastic asset this industry is to the UK and the kinds of support that would really help.

Before last month’s article was published in Glass Times, we asked AluK customers what they would like us to lobby for, and reducing VAT on windows and doors so that they come into line with other energy efficient measures, reducing fuel tax, and subsidising energy costs for UK based businesses were all popular.

Those kinds of measures would all help of course and will certainly form part of the roadmap and campaign we’re working on with CAB and hopefully with the Construction Products Association as well.

But arguably, there is an ever bigger requirement for some kind of meaningful stimulus for the housing market – even perhaps a revival of the Help to Buy scheme. Between 2013 and 2023, that helped almost 400,000 households get their first property using government backed loans to top up mortgages.

While it quite possibly pushed up the price of new-builds and arguably put money directly into the pockets of developers, it did give them an incentive to get building – and surely that’s what this industry needs right now?

There’s still plenty of time to join the campaign and have your say on the things that you think would make the biggest difference. We’d love to hear from you. Just scan the QR code or get in touch with me or the CAB direct.