The cost of living crisis is something that’s repeatedly filling our news streams with reports of how this is affecting people, businesses and whole industries.

Now, it has been revealed that, during 2022, high levels of inflation on building materials has made its mark on the UK’s construction sector – taking the total cost of construction output for the year to a record level of £204bn.

Read on for more on this story as well as what the experts are predicting for 2023…

On Saturday, Sheriff Construction’s team members, their families and others who work alongside us came together for the annual Christmas bash.

Held at Venue 360’s Balcony Bar, it was a night of eating, drinking and of course dancing! Around 80 people came along and, as always, it was great to see everyone enjoying the festivities. Our thanks to everyone who joined us for this brilliant night out.

Although there are a few weeks left of 2022, whenever we host this party, it always seems like the right time to reflect on the year gone by. Once again it has been a busy year with lots of changes and some ups and downs in Sheriff’s world. In this week’s blog, we’ve picked out some of our highlights.

One in four of us will, at some point in our lives, be affected by mental health issues. This ranges from common problems like anxiety, stress and depression to rarer, highly complex conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and psychosis.

While in recent years people have started to talk more openly about poor mental health, in many societies and communities there remains a stigma around the subject and the problem appears to be on the rise.

Today is World Mental Health Day and this year the theme is ‘making mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority.’ Taking the global perspective may be a bit beyond our reach but we have found some tips for how people can prioritise their own mental health. Read on to find out more.

After a couple of challenging years, many had big hopes that 2022 was going to offer the construction sector a slightly easier path. However, as we now know, the challenges have continued to rain upon our industry – not least of which have been issues around the availability and cost of materials plus labour supply.

More positively, the sector seems to have retained its ability to adapt and love of innovation and these are qualities that can be clearly seen in some of the current architectural design trends. From incorporating more natural lighting to introducing more efficient processes into projects, the design work that’s happening right now is surely leaving its mark on the homes of the future. Keep reading this week’s blog for some of the top trends we’ve come across…

(Mental Health Awareness Week 2022)

After two years of the pandemic, where there has been much less direct contact with friends, family, colleagues or even with essential healthcare professionals, many people are feeling a greater sense of loneliness, isolation and disconnection from our altered society.

Responding to this, the Mental Health Foundation have chosen ‘loneliness’ as the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week which starts today. With construction workers being exposed to many of the same stress points in life as everyone else, we’re using this week’s blog to talk about loneliness in detail and provide a few tips as to what can be done to manage or overcome this problem.

The world we live in is constantly changing and the construction industry is certainly no exception to this. While some of the changes construction faces are incredibly challenging (for instance, the materials and labour shortages that have been widely reported in recent years) others can be seen as game-changing opportunities to boost productivity, conquer new markets, improve sustainability and support the wellbeing of the workforce.

As we start another year, still in the grips of the global pandemic along with other serious planetary concerns, we’re taking a look at some of the predicted top trends for construction in 2022.

As a business that has grown substantially, with the support of family, friends and colleagues from across the communities we work in, Sheriff Construction has, in recent years, sought out many ways in which we can give some of that support back.

We’ve now reached the point where we’re now thinking about how we can go that bit further in terms of supporting and promoting social, economic and environmental wellbeing in society – otherwise known as ‘social value’. In our first blog of the year, we’re explaining more about what that means and focusing on one specific question: How can we make a greater positive impact on the communities we’re part of?