UK Roofing News: June 2026

The fortnight to 18 June 2026 was less about a single price shock and more about the wider picture that decides when work gets booked. The industry’s forecaster expects home improvement spending to fall hard this year, the way roofers are trained is heading for a shake-up, and the trade’s biggest show is about to open in Birmingham. Here is what changed and what it means before you commission a job.

CPA forecasts a sharp drop in home improvement work

The Construction Products Association’s Spring forecast expects overall UK construction output to fall by 2.5 per cent in 2026, with the private housing repair, maintenance and improvement sector taking the worst of it at a forecast 8 per cent decline. The CPA points to rising energy costs from the Iran conflict and to homeowners taking a “wait and see” approach as bills and project costs climb together. For you, a softer market usually means roofers have more capacity and are keener to quote, so this is a reasonable time to get three written quotes and negotiate rather than accept the first number. The full forecast is at Roofing Today, and our new roof cost guide shows what a fair number looks like.

CITB training merger consultation closes

The government’s consultation on merging the Construction Industry Training Board with its engineering equivalent into a single Industry Training Board closed on 14 June. Roofing Today reports that of ten roof training groups only two are still operating, and warns that funding for roofing apprenticeships and upskilling could shrink further under a combined body. This matters to homeowners because a thinning training pipeline is what pushes up labour rates and lengthens waiting lists over time, and it makes a contractor’s qualifications and NFRC or competent-roofer membership a more meaningful thing to check. Background at Roofing Today.

Steel and metal prices still feed the July tariff deadline

The pricing pressure flagged earlier in the month has not eased. Structural steel has climbed from about £700 per tonne in January to roughly £950 per tonne, and a planned cut of 60 per cent to tariff-free steel import quotas, plus a 50 per cent tariff above the threshold, is still due on 1 July. Anything with metal in it, including flashings, fixings, valley trays and steel lintels on larger jobs, is exposed. If your project runs across that date, ask the roofer to confirm whether the quote is fixed or subject to material increases. The detail is at Roofing Today.

InstallerSHOW opens in Birmingham on 23 June

InstallerSHOW 2026 runs from 23 to 25 June at the NEC, with a strong roofing presence including SIG Roofing, Catnic, Saint-Gobain, Easy-Trim and Restec, a Solar Pavilion covering the overlap between roofing and renewables, and the Great British Slate Off run by SIG Roofing and the NFRC. It is a trade event rather than a consumer one, but the themes worth noting are solar-integrated and flat roofing, both growing fast, so it is reasonable to ask a roofer whether they can fit solar in with a re-roof rather than bolting it on later. Preview at Installer Online.