A homegrown revival

Low carbon construction has long relied on imported materials, with the benefits often ending at the site boundary. With global supply chains under increasing strain, there’s a growing case for looking inward: backing domestic innovation, repurposing ailing industries like steelmaking and brickmaking, and training a new generation to build differently.

So why is the government stepping in at the eleventh hour to save an industry which has been on its knees for decades?

Official reasons include protecting skilled jobs and reducing reliance on overseas supply chains for strategically important materials. Under the surface there may be something more symbolic happening, as suggested by that recent intake of grads and apprentices; the first in years and welcome news against a backdrop of rising NEET numbers¹. Importing steel might cost less per tonne, but relying on imports to run our economy could cost far us more in the long run.

The built environment sector also relies on global supply chains, not just for materials but also for our workforce, and critically our decarbonisation. Mass timber, the lowest carbon structural material, is almost entirely imported². GGBS, the most popular additive to decarbonise concrete, is entirely imported³. Recycled steel beams, far lower carbon than virgin steel beams (like those made in Britain), are entirely imported.

This international market makes sense when energy abroad is cheaper, when we can trade freely, and when we have access to skilled workers willing to move here and help build Britain. However in recent years all of these assumptions have been thrown into question. The emergence of domestic renewables and spiking oil prices are reframing our view on energy independence. The ongoing tariff wars are making imports more expensive, exacerbated by Brexit, which has also impacted the workforce, with many skilled Europeans leaving the UK, and a British passport being less enticing.

All of this has thrown UK construction into disarray – the S&P UK Construction PMI has shrunk for 21 successive months, and the total value of projects beginning on site in 2025 was 20% lower than 2024⁴. The materials cost more, the people are harder to find, high costs drive up interest rates which, in combination with geopolitical uncertainty, compounds risk and slows down construction. The UK built environment employs 12% of the UK workforce⁵, so a downturn here risks becoming a negative feedback loop.

But it’s not all bad news. This instability of our incumbent systems could open the door for new, better, greener ways of building. A wave of novel technologies are waiting in the wings, struggling to compete with low-cost established options which benefit from economies of scale. These emerging technologies are exactly what our research and innovation initiative, HTS+, was set up to explore, test and develop.

GGBS, that popular but imported material for making low carbon concrete, is actually a constrained resource – there’s only enough globally to meet 10% of demand³, and its price is rising as demand increases. A far better alternative would be calcined clay – available from UK sources but not yet established because GGBS has always been cheaper. Pivoting to this material would make the UK a leader in sustainable concrete whilst breaking our reliance on a constrained import.

This move could also offer a new revenue stream to the UK brick industry, which has seen low demand and oversupply of stock as UK housebuilding lags⁶. Our brickmakers have deep knowledge of clay, and their rotary kilns and clay processing infrastructure can be repurposed to produce calcined clay, slashing the setup costs typically associated with a novel mineral product.

As founding members of the Accelerating Concrete Decarbonisation Group (ACDG), we’ve developed technical documentation to support prototype testing of lower carbon concretes, the first of which include two calcined clay mixes.

A healthy steel reuse industry would also help to change the way we deconstruct buildings, leading to reuse in other areas. At present demolition prioritises speed, so there is no incentive to preserve materials in good condition for reuse. Many materials sustain more damage during their deconstruction than during their service life, and can only really be reused via downcycling, breaking them down into lower value materials. Placing higher value on reused materials will lead to more considered deconstruction overall, supporting the reuse of other materials as the sector diversifies.

Over the last five years, Heyne Tillett Steel has reused over 300 tonnes of reclaimed steel across seven projects, including Holborn Viaduct and Timber Square. We also co-wrote a Deconstruction Specification, available to all members of the Engineers Reuse Collective, providing guidance on deconstruction for reuse.

Following years of disruption and instability, price increases and slowing development, a gloomy outlook would make sense, but something else is brewing. The era of cheap imports is beginning to fade, and in some critical areas domestic industries have all the answers, offering greener solutions, more reliably, for less. From steel to concrete to everything else, upskilling the workforce and revitalising UK industry is a critical need, and this is the perfect time to do it.

So good luck to those 70 graduates and apprentices starting at British Steel, hopefully they are just the beginning.

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