Construction Organisations Call for UKCA Mark Postponement

IN A LETTER to government, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has called for the move from CE to UKCA marking, due to come into effect in January 2023, to be postponed.

The CLC, together with the Construction Products Association (CPA) has written the letter to the new Secretary of State for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Grant Schapps, and the Secretary of State for Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove.

Call for UKCA Mark Postponement

The Construction Products Regulations UK (CPR) were adopted into the UK from the original EU regulations as part of the Brexit negotiations. These regulations are specific to construction products, with separate provisions from the product regulations used in the wider economy.

The CA mark and transition arrangements from CE remains unclear and the UK testing capacity has not been able to scale up to meet the demands, the CLC and CPA say.

Pointing to the wide range of construction products affected, the construction organisations say “many global manufacturers now regard the UK as just too difficult to do business with, which has resulted in products being withdrawn – impacting on the UK’s ability to deliver completed projects.”

The organisations are calling for government to suspend UKCA marking for at least two years while a joint working party is established between government and the construction sector to plan a transition to new arrangements.

The CLC and CPA ask for urgent action, saying the difficult economic conditions mean that government intervention is needed if the construction industry is to be able to deliver the pipeline of planned work.

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