Are We Ready for the Housing Boom?

Are We Ready for the Housing Boom?

With the new government’s ambitious goal to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years, those of us in the construction sector are looking ahead to the coming opportunities – and challenges. At Stairways, we’ve spent more than three decades at the heart of the supply chain supporting housebuilders. Now, as their work ramps up, we’re preparing to step up and to meet the demand for quality staircases, doors and joinery.

Rising to the Challenge

To reach the goal of 1.5 million homes, the UK needs to build 300,000 homes each year — something that hasn’t been achieved in more than half a century. While the housing sector has been through a tough period with higher mortgage rates, material shortages, and high inflation, the government is hoping to usher in a new era – to ‘get Britain building’. But for this massive project to succeed, manufacturers as well as housebuilders must be ready.

Building Resilience and Streamlining Supply Chains

Responding to any rise in demand requires robust supply chains, and we are already in a strong position here. The turbulence created by the pandemic, when shortages in timber and other materials created price spikes and delays, saw us strengthen relationships with our suppliers and develop backup options. We’ve also built-up good reserves of essential materials, allowing us to weather any unexpected disruptions and respond swiftly to demand.

Stairways has taken steps to boost efficiency internally too. In February 2021, for example, we announced a 50% reduction in our lead time for staircases; having used the previous six months during the pandemic to review internal processes, we streamlined activity to cut the time between call-off and delivery from around six weeks to just three.

We’ve also adopted new technology, improving efficiency and client communication with our bespoke estimating software. All this background work will allow us to scale up at pace.

Tackling Workforce Challenges

Despite the challenging climate of recent years, we have maintained our skilled workforce. For example, while we chose to suspend night shifts for most of this year, we have retained the staff, giving us the flexibility to reinstate night shifts quickly as projects ramp up. We’ve also taken the opportunity to train and refresher-train our people during the slow down, so we have the breadth and depth of skills we need.

That being said, finding enough skilled workers remains the biggest hurdle for us, and the sector as a whole, with an aging workforce, a shortage of young people entering the trades, and effects of Brexit, impacting availability across the board.

At Stairways, we’re doing our part to address the shortage, by providing apprenticeships, training and opportunities, for example through our new partnership with Walsall College. We are also proud to have two Go Construct STEM Ambassadors on the team – Karen Wood, our Joint MD & Owner, and Richard Kowalski, Technical Manager for Doors, reflecting their professional and personal commitment to promoting careers in our industry to younger generations.

Ready for What’s Next

With the outlook becoming more favourable for housebuilding, in terms of government policies, inflation, and mortgage rates, we’re already seeing a shift, with more projects entering the pipeline for our clients. The experiences of the past few years have made us stronger and more agile, and we’re ready for the fuller order books that will follow, confident in our systems and supply chains.

The ongoing skills shortage will doubtless remain a challenge and could put the brakes on this housing boom to some extent, but we’re ready for this journey and look forward to supporting our customers and the construction sector in the exciting years ahead.

We’ll be here, supporting the building of Britain’s future, one staircase, door, and home at a time.