There is not a single cause for the sudden increase in the price of materials. The pandemic, Brexit, ROI tree licencing, high demand compounded by shortages of raw materials worldwide, have all contributed to the problem. The madness will subside on most fronts, but it’s likely that costs will continue to rise for certain products.
To put the current material price increases in context, it’s important to remember that materials account for, on average, 40 per cent of the cost of any domestic house build. Each material itself will amount to a fraction of a percentage of that overall material amount.