Crafts cost crunch threatens centuries-old skills

Posted on 23/04/2022

Soaring energy prices, rising bills and spiralling inflation; householders all over the UK are feeling the pain of the escalating cost of living.

But spare a thought for the UK’s 150,000 craftspeople — the men and women who turn raw materials into beautiful objects that enhance the quality of life as well as the economy.

It takes energy, lots of it, to turn sand into glass, barley into beer, clay into tiles and pots, wood into wheels and metal into castings. For such enterprises there is no escape from escalating energy costs.

Yet anybody working from a workshop or any kind of business premises, as opposed to a home, lacks the protection of regulator Ofgem’s price cap.

This month’s permitted 54 per cent rise in domestic gas and electricity costs, and the threat of more in October, has made many householders very anxious. But at least there is an upper limit to the unit price that energy companies can charge. In contrast, craftspeople not currently on fixed-price deals are fully exposed to unpredictable and uncapped upswings.

These small businesses also face sharply increasing costs for their materials and for services such as shipping. Many are fearful of passing on costs through higher prices to consumers already hit by rising inflation and tax increases.

“The only thing that hasn’t gone up is our wages,” observes Cheryl Holley, who with two fellow workers in 2018 bought William Lane Foundry, Middlesbrough’s last foundry, a 150-year-old business making bespoke castings for heritage railways and other industrial restoration clients. Only their sole employee has had a pay rise.

Adding to the pressures are materials shortages. These have been triggered by supply chain problems and shipping logjams caused by the global Covid pandemic, plus the disruption to trade caused by Brexit. War in Ukraine has made everything worse and sent prices for commodities, including metals, surging.

“It’s been a perfect storm,” says Adrian Blundell, production director at Craven Dunnill Jackfield, a producer of decorative handmade tiles founded in 1872; flooring for the Houses of Parliament was a recent contract.

You might argue that makers of what, mostly, count as luxuries rather than necessities should see work as a labour of love. But, as London-based ceramicist Caroline Couzens points out: “It’s crucial to remind people that while we love what we do, we are businesses and thus must respond to hikes in costs as any other businesses.”

Original article: https://www.ft.com/content/3921cc98-d789-4f56-8234-2b109a230ef5