42% of UK tradesmen have more work than they expected. Diaries are filling and expected to get fuller over the next 12 months. The Screwfix Group, in its Trade Pulse report, were astounded by how busy tradesmen in their sample group have been with 58% expecting business to increase over the next year.

This expectation is not made lightly with 38% of tradesmen having increased quotes than this time last year. While just 2 years ago only just over half (68%) said they were being kept busy, now 82% claim to be working on projects with more work scheduled. 

This allows tradesmen to be increasingly optimistic for their own workload and also gives hope for the rest of the economy in general with 58% expecting it to improve over the next 12 months. We expect to see tradesman stocking up on electricals, decoraing and building, to deal with the increased demand.

“We have seen increasing optimism among our trade customers for some time now, so these latest findings support what we’ve been experiencing. The fact that nearly one in five tradesmen are saying they have more work than they can handle represents potential growth across the industry, as well as increasing employment opportunities in all sectors, which is great news for the UK economy. It also means that the industry as a whole needs to consider how it can better support tradesmen in helping them to grow their businesses at this time of opportunity”

-       Andrew Livingston, CEO