I read everywhere that consumer prices are flat or falling, yet I see that building product prices are on the increase by up to 8% in some cases, why, what is the justification?

January 2015

Master Blocks 7 - 12% 1st January 2015
Aggregates 7.0% 1st January 2015
Silica Sand 5.0% 1st January 2015
Aggregates 6 - 7.5 % 5th January 2015
Landsacping 4.5% 1st January 2015
Plasterboard 3.2 - 4.4% 1st January 21015
Brick & Block 9 - 12% 1st January 2015
Cement 9.0% 1st Jabuary 2015

http://www.pdmltd.co.uk/price-increases/

Labour rates are supposed to be increasing too Jeremy Vine on Radio2 was talking about the shortage of brickies, mainly in the Southeast I suppose, so an agency hires Portugese brickies for £500 week. I suppose that must be on employed basis.

Posted By: DarylP... because people buy the houses....?http:///forum114/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/standard/bigsmile.gif" alt="" title="" >

but people eat food and drive cars. Maybe yet again property is seen as an easy touch.

Posted By: SteamyTea

Posted By: chippyclausso an agency hires Portugese brickies for £500 week

Radio 4 reported it as £1000 a week or £165 a day.

Easy to square that one - The agency pays the Portugese brickies £500 week and charges them out at £1000 a week to their clients.

There is.....the big cardboard-box-builders pre-ordered their bricks/blocks last year.... that is why there are not many left at the merchants

Yes
Nearly every one. About the only ones that have gone up are the state paid for professionals, the legal industry.
Nearly every 'technician' level position has seen a decline in nominal rates.
Very low level wages have been kept up by the minimum wage legislation, but the hours have been cut and the most vile of contraptions (along with rolling contracts), zero hour contracts, have kept the real wage so low that the state has to top it up.

There are always exceptions, but it is often reported that as a nation, out wages have been in steady decline for the last 20 years.
The skew has got worse mind.

Here is the place to start looking.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/elmr/an-examination-of-falling-real-wages/2010-to-2013/art-an-examination-of-falling-real-wages.html

If you take away public sector workers, it is not a pretty picture.
Dig a bit deeper on the ONS site, its all there.

Wages tend to go up when the money supply is cheap and plentiful. This is not the same as earning more via productivity gains, which the UK has not managed to increase much in 40 years if you take away the technology gains.
It is a very sad picture but if we are to remain competitive we have to work for less, simple as that.

Posted By: SteamyTeaIt is a very sad picture but if we are to remain competitive we have to work for less, simple as that.

I don't regard it as sad, just the economic effect of more people on the planet. I'd add to the work for less, pay more tax. However much we don't like it, we want better and more advanced health care (in particular) we are going to have to pay for it and that is by more tax especially at the high end.

Posted By: SteamyTeaAbout the only ones that have gone up are the state paid for professionals, the legal industry.

Massive generalisation alert!

The average pay in the UK is £26,500 (first result on google), the average pay of a solicitor in the UK is £33,600 (first result on google - payscale.com). Monstrous, I tell you!

Plus most of the legal industry isn't state paid for. Those that are though, tend to earn less.

I'll declare an interest: I'm a solicitor.

On the topic though, I imagine that the cost of bricks etc are pretty much related to supply and demand. I also guess that supply lags demand so there isn't the capacity yet following the recent contraction in the economy.

The new nuclear plants might also suck a lot of the cement out of the market in the coming years.