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The warning was made by Mike Butterick, President of the GGF at the launch of The Glass & Glazing Collective at the Houses of Parliament on October 28^th.

Speaking to an audience of politicians, including keynote speaker Chris McDonald, Minister for Industry in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and industry drawn from glass manufacturing, processing, recyclers and the wider construction sector, Mike warned that companies were going out of business despite having healthy order books.

He said while the GGF and its members were fully supportive of the regulatory and legislative framework regarding Gateway 2 and were committed to improving safety and compliance in buildings, it was also important that the Government held up its side of the bargain, by making sure that regulators were properly resourced.

According to an update from the Building Safety Regultor in October, it still has 91 historic new build applications waiting for Gateway 2 approval.

“The frameworks were put in place to improve safety and quality of buildings. They were not put in place to reduce economic activity at a time when we all want economic growth”, Mike said.

He also set out the GGF’s position on VAT on windows and doors arguing it should  be rated at the same level as other insulating building products and renewables.

He said that against the backdrop of the move to renewables improving the thermal performance of UK homes “just made sense”

He argued that homeowners needed to be incentivised to replace many older double-glazed windows and doors which might look good, but which fell significantly short of today’s high performing windows and doors.

“We provide great insulators. They save energy, and that’s still the number one reason why people replace their old windows and doors.

“But there are 80,000,000 first generation double glazed windows in the housing stock that don’t perform very well – those 80 million windows need replacing”, he said.

Mike built on this in a subsequent point on sustainability and circularity. He said: “If you remember those 80 million windows, well the good news is our industry recovers the materials in those old windows and recycles them, including the glass which is infinitely recyclable ,without any detriment to the performance of the product and to the quality of the product.

“It makes replacing those 80 million plus windows is the right thing to do, because we’ve got the circularity, the economic circularity system, in place.”

He also highlighted the economic and social value of the glass and glazing industry which he said turned over in excess of £5bn annually, while providing skilled employment for more than 100,000 people, with 80% of fenestration products manufactured in the UK.

This extened to a societal value, with windows and doors not only saving energy but also contributing to home security. He flagged the expected consultation on a revision of Document Q, which he stated included proposals to extend new build window security standards to the replacement and home improvement sectors.

“If we did that, it would mean, as a standard, our industry would provide the highest security performing windows and doors, and that takes pressure off the police and off our legal systems, because it’s proven that high security products reduce domestic break in and burglary”, he said.

The Glass & Glazing Collective is a broad-church collaboration between the GGF, British Glass, Glass Futures and the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London. It aims to unite the UK’s leading glass and glazing organisations and industry to champion the role that the sector plays in Britain’s industrial strength and net zero ambitions.

Other speakers included David Baines, MP for St Helens North and Sarah Champion MP for Rotheram, who highlighted the vital role the glass sector played in the UK economy and security. The event was also attended by Neil Coyle MP for Southwark and Bermondsey.

“The glass and glazing Federation is the only organization that represents all parts of our industry. So window systems, manufacturers, fabricators, installers, hardware suppliers, glass processors, flat glass manufacturers, and more besides”, Mike continued.

“We’ve got huge knowledge and experience. In recent years, we’ve been providing expert technical advice to support government.

“It’s really important that we nurture that and we do more across more government departments so that together, we can navigate the complexities and the challenges that we all face . . . to accelerate the economic and social value of what we do as an industry, because we do it so well”, he concluded.