However 86% are experiencing rising material prices and 55% indicating rising labour costs on the previous quarter.
Roofing contractors are optimistic about their workloads for 2022, with 43% expecting further growth over the next year, according to the NFRC/Glenigan State of the Roofing Industry Survey for Q4 2021.
However, contractors reported being hampered by rising costs in the last quarter of 2021, with 86% of roofing contractors experiencing rising material prices and over half (55%) indicating rising labour costs on the previous quarter.
While most (61%) have been able to pass these costs on, through raising their tender prices, a significant proportion (39%) of contractors haven’t been able to, and will have to absorb these costs themselves. These price rises are set to continue into 2022, with the price of energy going up and labour availability worsening.
The survey also found that:
NFRC’s Head of Policy and Communications, Philip Campbell, said: “On the face of it, roofing contractors are feeling bullish - most have seen five consecutive quarters of growing workloads, and the pipeline of future enquiries remain robust, and are therefore mostly optimistic that workloads will continue to grow over the year. However, this optimism is dampened by the reality of spiralling cost increases, the likes of which haven’t been seen in recent times.
“What is most concerning is that over a third of roofing contractors haven’t been able to pass these costs on in their tender prices. Many contractors are operating on very tight margins, and their working capital has already been eaten away by things like retentions, late payment and more recently, reverse charge VAT.
"If these costs continue to rise, the financial health of many firms could be put in jeopardy. Manufacturers and clients must work collaboratively with specialist contractors to ensure these costs are distributed fairly throughout the supply chain and fixed price contracts are honoured.”
Allan Wilén, Economics Director at Glenigan, said: “Roofing contractors continued to grow their workload during the final quarter of last year, despite the disruption of labour and material shortages. An increase in new enquiries bodes well for the first quarter of 2022 and contractors anticipate a further strengthening in workload over the course of this year.”