NEWS
Over 90% of engineering services firms fear coronavirus impact
O
ver 93% of engineering services businesses say they are ‘concerned or very concerned’ about the impact of coronavirus on their
business over the next six months, according to initial responses to a major new ECA/BESA/SELECT engineering services survey. Over 60% of respondents are ‘very concerned’ about coronavirus while one percent of respondents suggested they were ‘unconcerned’. Half of the engineering services respondents (51%) said that they have already encountered ‘delays and disruptions to current projects’, with 61% of larger businesses reporting current disruption. Around half of respondents already report ‘delays and disruption to future work’. Over half of respondents (53%) said they were now ‘preparing business contingency plans’ as a result of developments, a figure which rose to 71% in larger businesses. The most commonly cited business activity in response to coronavirus to date is ‘reducing
business travel’ and ‘asking or allowing staff to work from home’, followed by ‘business contingency planning.’ However, around 10% of businesses say they have ‘shut down at certain premises or sites’, and over 10% of respondents also say they are ‘updating their contracts’ and ‘looking into alternative suppliers’. ECA chief executive, Steve Bratt, commented:
“Coronavirus is already having a significant impact across our industry and wider society. ECA is aware that many businesses are already encountering work delays, site access issues and cancellations. “We are actively working with industry bodies
and Government to represent the concerns and interests of the industry. Key to this is ensuring that Government understands that early, significant and practically useful support is needed to help our industry with cashflow, but also to provide as much certainty as possible.” BESA director of legal and commercial, Debbie Petford, said: “Though these are just preliminary
findings, the sheer scale of the disruption to the sector is alarming. We will be working around the clock to provide as much guidance as possible to our members, and calling on the government to keep providing additional stimulus and support as the situation evolves, to ensure businesses make it to other side of this crisis in one piece.”
The survey has already received over 600
responses from across the industry, including nearly 180 from larger businesses in the sector. The coronavirus situation is fast moving
and further survey responses are expected to show increasing impact on the industry in the days ahead. Engineering services plays a critical role
in developing and maintaining the UK’s built environment – which includes businesses, housing, hospitals and care homes, and the UK’s wider infrastructure, and is fundamental to employment and keeping the UK economy moving.
Building maintenance moves into uncharted territory
T
he coronavirus crisis has created unprecedented challenges for building owners and maintainers. However, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has moved quickly to support the sector by releasing detailed guidance on how buildings can be managed and maintained effectively during the coming weeks and months. With thousands of people now working from home or prevented from travelling, many commercial buildings are moving into shutdown mode. This has huge implications for building services equipment with decisions that would normally have been planned over many months now having to be taken within days. Owners, landlords and tenants will still need to maintain their buildings for security purposes; to achieve statutory compliance; and to protect the fabric and critical systems as well as satisfying any insurance implications. Thousands of UK buildings are already maintained in line with the
industry’s standard SFG20, which was created by BESA and is continually updated to reflect changing technical and regulatory requirements. Its planned maintenance strategies would continue to keep buildings
safe and compliant through this period, but some organisations may decide to ‘mothball’ their building or at least reduce their maintenance regime to a low level.
However, full closure and shutdown is a long-term action that would make it difficult to get the building up and running again quickly when the crisis recedes. Elements of the building may also be needed to support staff working from home, such as server rooms, and this brings SFG20’s sister standard, the recently updated and relaunched SFG30 ‘Mothballing and Reactivation’ into play.
SFG30 takes users through a step-by-step process for maintaining critical services during this low occupancy period ready for rapid and full reactivation when business returns to normal. This includes key elements such as keeping water systems safe and healthy (in line with the Health & Safety Executive’s L8 rules for legionella control); both active and passive fire protection systems; safe handling of refrigerant gases; electrical and gas service safety checks and ventilation hygiene. It also explains how to maintain security systems and lifts if they are still in service among many other factors. SFG20 and SFG30 were made possible by BESA members sharing their
many years of specialised building engineering expertise and experience. The crucial information they contain will be more essential than ever to get buildings safely through this critical period. Therefore, BESA has decided to make SFG30 guidance free of charge to members until further notice and has reduced the price for everyone else by 50%.
www.acr-news.com
April 2020 7
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