Much of this isn't political, though. For a goodly part of this year we've struggled getting structural timber (C24 graded softwoods, source in Russia and Finland, graded in Germany) and plywood (Finland, Russia and China) onto site in a timely manner (bearing on mind that a typical drop for us is £5k and upwards). The merchants have been experiencing longer and longer delays getting stuff off the docks due to additional delays in clearance, and that's before you factor in lack of HGV drivers having an effect on delivery. For more than 40 years the supply chain in the UK has been dependent on just in time deliveries from Europe using ever increasing numbers volume of cheap labour from Eastern Europe to drive the trucks. I know that there are other factors at play here (and I'm not talking about cost), but it certsinly looks like the construction industry supply chain system is broken. It isn't alone. That isn't politics, it's fact
