According to the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF), sales of building materials in the East Midlands increased by 2.1% in Q4 2024 and 9.3% in December, despite an overall annual decline of 2.7%.
The data comes from the BMF’s Building Materials Building Index (BMBI), which tracks 88% of builders’ merchants’ sales using GfK’s point-of-sale data. BMF CEO John Newcomb noted that while national sales fell 4.1% in 2024, the year ended with a 3% rise in December, reflecting improving sentiment in home repair, maintenance, and improvement markets.
BMF East Midlands Regional Chair James Hipkins called the regional growth “encouraging” after a difficult year.
