Mark Andrews believes the > and when the sector finally does, it will be on a far less He is also convinced the future of the UK’s energy
recession will impinge on the
lucrative plane. generation lies in nuclear and carbon capture, not
sustainability agenda.
‘Anybody expecting to see a rapid bounceback or renewables like wind farms. The investment needed to
recovery is unlikely to see that in buildings because make these changes happen, though, is so huge that it
the fundamentals aren’t there – overcapacity or has to be instigated by government, and not individual
supply of commercial offices, oversupply of apartments, businesses.
and rising unemployment look set to continue into next But Andrews believes the biggest opportunity for the
year.’ building services engineering industry in particular lies
Food retailers, Andrews admits, are still in the retrofitting of existing buildings. About 60 per
building, but commercial office development cent of the buildings in use now were constructed long
has all but ceased and he has no reason to before Part L was ever even thought about, he says. ‘If
believe it’s going to come back any time soon. we want to make all the building stock in this country
He adds: ‘And what does that mean? Everybody energy efficient, there’s a lot of work that’s got to be
becomes more dependent on the public sector, and the done and a lot of investment that’s got to be made. It
state of public sector finances is such that I think the ought to be a real opportunity for the building services
There’s a
government, whichever party is in power, is going to industry.’
struggle to sustain the level of capital investment seen in These economic challenges will continue to have
complete lack the past two years. If you put those two together, where’s serious consequences for the industry generally, with
of solid [post-
the money going to come from? It’s not a pretty picture, more redundancies certainly on the cards as firms
occupancy] data
but I don’t think we should be throwing ourselves off work to ‘size’ their businesses appropriately. For
a cliff.’ NG, the magnitude of these cuts is as yet unknown.
[for buildings]. Andrews can’t say how bad it will be because of the
I don’t think
New markets unpredictable nature of the market. The company has
those models
Opportunities do still lie in the rail sector, but the more already been forced to cut its graduate intake by about a
exciting openings, according to Andrews, are in the quarter and has scaled back its apprenticeship scheme,
are robust utilities and industrial markets – particularly in building although investment in training and development is
enough yet for
new power stations in the UK. He estimates that, in four continuing.
people to be able
years’ time, the nuclear programme will potentially be Andrews also fears that the current economic
massive, with six to eight power stations needing to be challenge will impact on clients’ ability – and desire – to
to rely on them built in parallel. make any move towards greening their buildings.
32 CIBSE Journal October 2009
www.cibsejournal.com
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