How inheritance tax changes could put Yorkshire’s construction supply chain under strain - Steven Mulholland
Many will see the collapse of Yorkshire-based construction equipment supplier Warwick Ward as just another local business failure. For those who work in the industry, it feels far more personal.
This was a family-run firm built over decades, employing local people, training apprentices and supporting projects across the region. Its closure is not just a story about one company, but a warning sign.
Plant-hire businesses like Warwick Ward rarely make national headlines. Yet without them, nothing gets built. Every housing development, road scheme or regeneration project depends on the machinery they supply, from cranes and excavators to the smaller kit that keeps sites moving day-to-day.
When construction activity slows or costs rise, plant-hire firms are often the first to feel it. That is exactly what is happening now. The latest S&P data showing construction activity has been falling for 12 consecutive months, and for the plant-hire sector, this downturn hits particularly hard. Machines sit idle, orders are delayed, cash flow tightens and the pressure builds quietly. These firms are already grappling with falling workloads, rising fuel and energy costs, costly net-zero policies and higher employer National Insurance contributions. But the looming changes to inheritance tax represent something more serious and structural. They strike at the long-term foundations of family-run businesses and their willingness to keep investing.
Most plant-hire companies are not asset-light or cash-rich. Our members are family-owned firms whose balance sheets are dominated by productive assets, not spare cash. They take significant risks buying expensive machinery in the hope of earning a return over many years. That investment only makes sense if there is confidence the business can be passed on intact to the next generation.
When uncertainty creeps in around ownership and succession, investment is the first thing to be delayed or cancelled. That is already happening. More than 90 per cent of plant-hire firms now expect to reduce investment over the next year. Crucially, three-quarters say the proposed inheritance tax changes would directly reduce their ability to invest.
These are not abstract concerns, but real decisions being taken today. Fewer machines being ordered, fewer apprentices taken on and fewer upgrades to newer, cleaner and safer equipment. Once investment stalls, capacity drains out of the system long before demand visibly returns. When the work does come back, that lost capacity is hard and expensive to rebuild.
The implications for Yorkshire’s wider economy are significant. Analysis from Family Business UK suggests the inheritance tax changes could put almost £1bn of gross value added at risk across the region and threaten close to 15,000 jobs. This is not simply about individual firms tightening their belts, but a gradual weakening of the construction supply chain that underpins growth across the region.
That matters because Yorkshire will be central to the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million new homes and accelerate infrastructure investment. Those targets rely on a functioning, confident supply chain. Targets on paper mean little if the businesses that supply the machinery and skills to deliver them are being quietly undermined.
If ministers want to see cranes in the sky and homes built at pace, they must look beyond headline developers and remember the family businesses behind the scenes. The alternative is a slow erosion of the supply chain Yorkshire depends on, and with it a serious risk to delivering the homes and infrastructure Britain urgently needs.
Steven Mulholland is the CEO of the Construction Plant-hire Association.