Edwards to lobby for reform of building materials industry

2degrees founder Tex Edwards has added the building materials industry to the list of industries he is lobbying to reform. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark confirmed on Sunday that the industry would be the subject of the Commerce Commission’s third market study, after petrol, and the supermarket study that it plans to wrap up in March. The building materials study comes after longstanding concerns that high prices for commonly used products may be pushing up the cost of new housing, repairs and renovations. Edwards, who is involved in a group called Northelia that hopes to create a third national supermarket chain, said he didn’t currently have any business interests in the outcome of the building materials review. But he said MonopolyWatch NZ, a lobby group that he fronts, had been carrying out its own research into best practices in building social housing over the past three years. MonopolyWatch and its associates had visited 32 international housebuilding factories, comparing costs and assessing their processes, he said.