Metal theft – the problem is perception

Concern about metal theft remains a barrier to specifying lead sheet on some building products. This concern is now mainly based on perception rather than reality as the volume of metal theft has fallen significantly over the last year or two.

On Monday I attended a meeting of the Metal Theft Working Group run by the Association of Chief Police Officers. Although the final figures for metal stolen during 2013-14 will not be available until the Home Office publishes its crime statistics later in the year, all regions of England and Wales reported further reductions (building on those achieved in 2012-13) in recent months. Typically theft levels are down to around 25-30% of the levels they were at and even this figure is made up by recent growth in the theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles. Interestingly in the two hour discussion there was hardly any mention of theft of metal sheet, including lead, from buildings.

The full implementation of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act towards the end of 2013 has clearly had a major impact. More than 6,000 dealers are now registered under the Act. The police and local authorities are building up an intelligence-led picture to allow them to target those most likely to be involved in dodgy dealings and take action against unregistered sites. Around 60 sites have already been closed or under an investigation that may result in them being shut down. Although some of the fines imposed on dealers have been modest in other cases penalties of as much as £6000 have been imposed.

Mobile collectors remain an area of concern with one police region reporting that it had stopped over 1,500 vans over the last three months and found around one-third either carrying stolen material or infringing vehicle regulations. Considerable effort is also being put into Operation Baltic, a joint initiative to check that stolen metal is not being exported in containers. Early indications are that this is a less likely route out of UK for stolen metal than had been expected.

The message seems to be clear. Sensible precautions still need to be taken to protect lead sheet from theft but its vulnerability has reduced very substantially in the last few years. Those wanting to specify lead sheet should now be able to tell clients, and insurers, that the risks of it being stolen are now very low.


Richard Diment,
LSA Exective Manager

News from the LSA Technical Department

Having been given the opportunity to blog on behalf of the technical department of the Lead Sheet Association, it is only right to extend my thanks to all those that attended our one day technical and hands on seminar here at our office and training facility in East Peckham, Kent. We usually hold this event at least once a year, providing a more in-depth experience for those interested. The morning session involved a technical briefing, touching on as many subjects as possible and trying to answer attendees’ more immediate questions. I always find someone has a project either in the pipeline or underway with an issue that needs solving or overcoming which may not always be immediately obvious in our rolled lead sheet manual!

The afternoon moved onto our workshop/training area whereupon we gave people the chance to become ‘hands on.’ Many architects/surveyors never get the opportunity to have a go themselves and always go away with a new-found respect for the many gifted leadworkers out there.

It was nice to see that those that came were not solely from this sector but were from various parts of the industry – estimators, roofers and even chimney sweeps. So once more, thank you to all those that came and if anyone else out there is interested in future events such as this please get in touch and register your interest. Subject to sufficient demand, we may run another seminar later in the year and it would be great to welcome you and give you a really good value for money and hopefully enlightening day.

Darren Tutt

Technical Officer

Lead sheet is a contemporary construction product

Given that most people usually only see lead roofing on historic buildings getting across the message that lead sheet is a product to use in modern construction isn’t always that easy. So the opportunity to co-host a seminar with the respected RIBA journal on the use of BSEN12588 Rolled Lead Sheet wasn’t one to pass by.

The event was held on Monday at The Building Centre in London, and around 60 construction professionals, mainly architects, turned up for a fascinating morning showcasing lead sheet on a range of modern commercial and domestic buildings.

The case studies highlighted, all of which will be written up shortly for an article in RIBA Journal and be featured on the LSA web-site, showed the imaginative use of lead sheet on the roof, as vertical cladding and even as soffits. As one of the speakers put it succinctly ‘Lead gets you out of tricky corners’. The same speaker admitted that in one project he had rejected lead as he felt that copper cladding would provide a better contrast with the brickwork but had learnt how much easier it was to work with lead than copper in the process.

It was also gratifying to hear the frequent references from speakers to the support and advice they had received from the LSA’s technical department.

The lively Q&A session covered subjects’ technical and aesthetic as well as the lack of knowledge about the measures taken in recent years that have drastically reduced the amount of metal theft. There was also an interesting discussion about identifying craftsmen who really can deliver on leadwork as opposed to those who simply say they can.

I had the task of summing up at the end of the morning. I was able to pull from the presentations all the merits of rolled lead sheet – its versatility, cost effectiveness, green credentials but above all how good it looks.

Richard Diment

Executive Manager

Queen’s speech confirms relaxation of zero carbon standards to boost new home sales

With roughly 70% of lead sheet used in the construction industry on domestic property – new build, extensions and refurbishment – the strength of the housing market is critical to product sales. 

There’s almost universal agreement that too few new homes are being built in the UK. Although the latest figures show that construction started on nearly 135,000 new homes in England in the year to March 2014, and this is the highest number since 2007-08, it still falls way below the estimates that we need to be building at least 200,000 each year. The reality is that, alongside the refurbishment of older properties, there should be around 50% more housing starts each year than is currently being achieved.

Recent weeks have seen much comment about the effectiveness, and possible adverse consequences for the wider economy, of the Government’s Help to Buy initiatives. In the small print of the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday was the announcement that the Government’s intention that all new homes built from 2016 should be zero carbon will be relaxed to encourage growth in the market. The Infrastructure Bill will include provision for developers of larger sites to make offset payments for homes built to less stringent levels, but still to the fairly exacting Code 4 standard, of energy efficiency. For developers on smaller sites (the Government will consult on the definition of ‘smaller’ but reports suggest that the threshold will be between 10 and 50 units) the requirement will be removed altogether.

The home building industry has argued that with additional costs averaging nearly £10,000 per home the zero carbon requirement will suppress the market at a time when the need for affordable new homes has never been greater. Higher standards inevitably come at a price but opponents of the proposal will say that relaxation also has costs with both higher overall carbon emissions and fuel bills for those who move into these homes. 

Given the scale of our housing crisis, and the very small impact on carbon emissions from new buildings relative to the existing stock, this seems to be a price worth paying for a few years at least.

Richard Diment,
LSA Executive Manager,

5th June 2014

Richard writes... 2nd June 2014

Welcome to the new LSA blog! This is the first in an occasional series of blog items that will be a new feature, covering the range of activities that keep the LSA team busy.

The short week after a bank holiday are always a bit strange as you try to work out which day it is, but plenty was going last week to keep the LSA team fully occupied.

I spent Wednesday in Hereford with Taylor-Lane, our partner developing the prefabricated rolled lead sheet covered dormer unit that we hope will take the building market by storm.

After months of developing the concept, the first orders for the dormer now appear close, with at least one major developer eager to install the units on a site later this summer. As with any innovative product, others are waiting to see the first examples in use before committing but the many expressions of interest suggest strong sales are likely.

Looking at the mock-up in Taylor-Lane’s factory reminded me just how solid and impressive a structure the finished dormer will be. The benefits to the builder of a jig-built structure finished in factory conditions by a skilled lead-worker must make this an attractive option. Prices are now being worked up but given the likely life of the product – backed up by the 25-year LCA warranty on the lead work and the 50 year guarantee on the lead sheet – it must be cost effective when compared with a man-made alternative. Even for those who currently prefer a lead covered option this solution, simply craning the finished unit into place, must be preferable to sending a lead-worker onto the roof in all weather conditions to struggle with rolls of lead sheet.

For more information about the dormer visit www.leadsheet.co.uk/dormer.

One of the most popular services LSA provides is the wide range of downloadable CAD designs for the use of lead sheet in construction. Last week there were over 1,000 downloads and monthly figures can be as high as 6,000. To try to understand how this works I met on Thursday with Terry Holding of Fastrack CAD, who host this service on behalf of LSA. Fastrack CAD promotes the LSA drawings alongside those for many other building products in everyday use across the industry. They are also able to offer BIM drawings for some uses of lead sheet. The latest service is an app for use on smart phones and tablets so that drawing can be easily accessed on site. You can access our drawings by clicking here and searching for "Lead Sheet Association" within the FastrackCAD app once downloaded.