As the Autumn Budget approaches, industry bodies have set out their priorities for the Chancellor. Ours is shorter. What a specialist building services contractor needs most is something that costs very little to give: certainty.
Building services sit deep inside the life of a scheme. The pipework, power, heating, fire protection and ventilation in a block of flats are designed early, installed over many months and then maintained for decades. Large residential programmes in London routinely run for several years, and the decisions that shape them are taken long before anyone picks up a tool.
Across Millharbour Group, our teams work on major residential developments where MEP installation, fire protection, prefabrication and long-term maintenance are closely connected. We see first-hand how decisions made early in a programme affect delivery years later.
That is why stop-start policy hurts our sector more than almost any single tax rise. A contractor can plan around a cost it can see coming. It cannot plan around a rule that changes halfway through a programme.
So when Chancellor John Healey delivers his Budget on Wednesday, these are the four things we will be listening for.
1. Keep London’s residential pipeline viable
The government wants to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England during this Parliament. There is growing doubt across the industry that this target can be achieved, and London faces some of the greatest challenges. Major housebuilders have questioned the viability of new developments in the capital, with some withdrawing from new schemes altogether.
The causes are well known. Build costs are high, sales are slow and each new charge lands on schemes that were already marginal. The Building Safety Levy, which came into effect this month for qualifying residential developments in England, is the latest consideration.
We are not arguing against building safety. Our companies install sprinklers, fire alarms, smoke control and other life safety systems, and we take that responsibility as seriously as anyone.
The point is that every additional levy, charge and compliance requirement has a cumulative impact on development costs. If the government wants more homes built, it needs to consider these requirements together, while maintaining the safety standards that residents rightly expect.
When a residential scheme stalls, it is not only the developer who feels it. It is the MEP contractor, the sprinkler installer, the prefabrication workshop and the facilities team that would have maintained the building for the next twenty years.
A viable and predictable development pipeline matters to the entire supply chain.
2. Make it cheaper to train people, not just to hire them
The Construction Industry Training Board estimates that UK construction will need around 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030. That represents approximately 41,200 extra workers each year, simply to meet demand and replace those leaving the industry.
Building services trades are among the areas where recruiting and retaining skilled people remains a challenge.
Our approach has always been to employ permanent teams wherever possible and train them to a consistent standard, rather than relying on a constantly changing workforce of agency labour.
It is slower and costs more up front. But it gives our people the opportunity to develop their skills, build experience and understand the standards we expect. It is also the reason a client gets the same quality on the three hundredth apartment as on the first.
The increase in employer National Insurance last year made that model more expensive, adding to the cost of employing and developing permanent teams.
That matters particularly when bringing young people into the industry. Apprentices and trainees require time, supervision and investment before they become fully productive members of a team. Those costs are worth bearing, but employers need encouragement to make that commitment.
Industry bodies have called for targeted relief through apprenticeship grants, tax incentives and changes to employment costs. Any of these could help.
What matters is that the cost of bringing someone new into construction goes down, not up. The industry cannot address its skills shortage without employers willing and able to invest in the next generation.
3. Fix how the supply chain gets paid
The Commercial Payments Bill, which includes provisions to ban cash retentions in construction contracts, has completed its passage through the House of Lords and is now progressing through the Commons.
For specialist subcontractors, this is not a technicality.
Retentions tie up money that has already been earned, often for years. When a main contractor or client fails, that money can simply disappear. For businesses operating on tight margins, the consequences can be severe.
We have seen the consequences of supply chain failure first-hand this year, taking on projects where other contractors have gone out of business. While that has brought new opportunities for Millharbour, nobody wants to see good businesses fail or projects disrupted in this way.
A healthy construction sector depends on financially stable businesses throughout the supply chain. When a specialist contractor collapses, it affects far more than that individual company. It disrupts programmes, puts pressure on other trades and creates uncertainty for clients.
A fairer payment system keeps good businesses trading and projects moving.
We would like to see the Bill progress quickly, with a clear timetable for implementation and practical arrangements that protect specialist contractors throughout the supply chain.
4. Give low carbon heat a stable direction
Energy centres and heating systems are among the longest lead decisions on a residential scheme. They are designed early, built over many months and expected to operate reliably for decades.
At Millharbour, we understand the complexity of designing, installing and maintaining these systems across large residential developments.
An energy centre is not something that can be redesigned overnight. Changes to heat source requirements can affect plant selection, electrical capacity, distribution infrastructure, building layouts and long-term maintenance arrangements.
On a major residential development, those decisions have significant commercial and programme consequences.
That makes policy on low carbon heat, heat networks and energy efficiency standards particularly sensitive to change. A shift in direction halfway through a programme can mean redesign, delay and additional costs that nobody originally budgeted for.
The transition towards lower carbon heating is necessary, and the building services sector has a critical role to play in delivering it. But investment in the right technology, skills and infrastructure depends on confidence in the direction of travel.
We do not expect every answer in one Budget. We need a stable, credible policy framework that allows the schemes being designed today to be delivered without repeated changes of direction.
What we will do either way
Budgets come and go, and no Chancellor can remove every pressure on construction in a single afternoon. What a business can control is how it responds.
For Millharbour Group, that means being open and honest about what changes mean for cost and programme, and having those conversations early rather than storing up problems.
It means continuing to invest in our people, our processes and the quality of our work, even when market conditions are challenging.
It means staying resilient when requirements change, because on a long construction programme something always does.
And it means working collaboratively with clients, main contractors and the wider supply chain, because none of the pressures facing our industry can be solved by one trade or business on its own.
Whatever is announced on Wednesday, those commitments will not change.
We would welcome hearing how others across the industry read the Budget once the detail is out.