Brexit/Covid cost impact

[E11lover]

Hi, we’re planning an extension to our house in London and our builder has just submitted a revised price estimate (the original quote was dated about July last year). The new quote for the same job has come in about 30% higher, which is quite painful. Would be interested to know if anyone else has had any similar experience of recent price increases?

Our builder (small 10k job) says he’s making nothing as bricks have doubled and timber is up too. He only quoted a month before starting. Also lots of people have extra cash so are doing these jobs so supply chain is under strain.

I'd say thats valid. Materials have gone mental. We agreed with the builder to buy as much as possible before Christmas to avoid our quote going up. Timber is up 40%. Copper a massive increase too. Timber apparently not covid/brexit but in fact a global shortgage. Good time for us to be building a timber framed, timber clad extension (which was supposed to be the cheaper option... sigh)!

Wow. Relieved we completed our extension last year. I suspected things would go up but 30% is worrying. I wonder what this means for inflation and interest rates.