He told the Express: “When construction slows, plant-hire firms feel it first. We are the canary in the coal mine for the industry. These businesses are capital-intensive and asset-heavy. They rely on confidence and long-term visibility to invest. Instead, they are being hit by weaker demand, higher employment costs and prolonged tax uncertainty — all at the same time.

“While we welcomed Labour’s decision to row back on inheritance tax thresholds, it does little to address the reality on the ground. Firms are at a breaking point, with nearly half of our members now believing current pressures could push firms towards insolvency.

“If Labour is serious about delivering 1.5 million new homes, it cannot ignore the firms supplying the machinery and equipment that make building possible. Without investment in the supply chain, those homes simply will not be built.”

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice MP said: “Labour’s wildly unrealistic house-building targets are already being exposed for what they are: fantasy.

“Their punitive tax raids on hardworking businesses have stifled growth and killed off the very jobs needed to build these homes. Labour will never be able to achieve its targets in the economic mess it has created.”

Shadow Chancellor, Sir Mel Stride, told the Express: “Labour talks up the promises they have made on housebuilding, but their tax raids are crushing the very firms that help build them. You cannot deliver the homes we need for our economy and our young people by hollowing out our construction sector — and right now, under this Chancellor, confidence is collapsing, and companies are paying the price.”

A recent survey of CPA members found more than 90% of respondents would either invest less or delay investment over the next 12 months, citing falling workloads, weak project pipelines and escalating cost pressures.

According to the latest S&P Global UK construction purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month, UK housebuilding activity has remained in its deepest slump since the start of the pandemic, while the wider construction sector has been in contraction for a year.

In recent weeks, two large construction firms have entered administration.

Warwick Ward (Machinery) Limited, a major construction plant dealer, was placed into administration in December after 55 years of trading, followed by Caldwell Construction Ltd — which provides groundworks services for several national housebuilders and employs more than 400 people — less than a month later.

Plant-hire firms are pointing to rising employment costs, driven by hikes to employers’ National Insurance Contributions, as one of two key pressures compounding the slowdown in building.

The other factor is uncertainty around upcoming changes to Business Property Relief — more than 85% of CPA members are family-run.

David Wernick, executive chairman of the Wernick Group, a major provider of modular buildings, site accommodation and power solutions, warned that pressures could see the construction supply chain diminish.

He told the Express: “Family firms are being pushed into defensive decisions just to survive, rather than investing in jobs, new projects and the local communities they support.

“The perverse consequence is that businesses built on long-term ownership are being driven towards private equity or PLC models that prioritise short-term returns over long-term investment.

“This is about more than individual companies. If family businesses are prevented from reinvesting and passing on what they’ve built, capacity across the construction supply chain will shrink — making Labour’s infrastructure ambitions harder and far more expensive to deliver.”

Infrastructure expert Mark Coates, vice president of Bentley’s IPA think tank, warned issues in the construction industry could see house prices shoot up.

He said: “When these pressures rise, cashflow and confidence drain quickly from the supply chain. Builders become more selective, slow down their work or even walk away from schemes with marginal benefits.

“This drops capacity out of the market, without the upshot of lower house prices. Instead, we’ll see constrained supply, slower delivery, and affordability pushed further out of reach.

“Unless policy shifts away from short-term revenue grabs towards providing stability and modernising how homes are planned and built, supply will continue to underperform – keeping prices and rents under sustained upward pressure.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, plant-hire is Britain’s most capital-intensive sector, meaning significant investment is needed to just maintain services.

Its capital investment ratio of 0.260 is more than twice that of the next-closest sector.

It supports more than 190,000 jobs and contributes around £14 billion to the UK economy.

The 1.5 million new homes by 2029 was a key pledge in Labour’s manifesto