News analysis with BESA
BESA members have ‘unique insight’ T
Former Labour cabinet minister Caroline Flint MP has urged politicians to step back and give the industry the freedom it needs to deliver a better UK built environment
he former Housing and Planning Minister told the BESA National Conference in London that the Association and its members had a big part to play in the British people’s
quality of life. “You have a unique insight into the built environment and you
bring architects’ visions to life,” she said. “You make our buildings function and keep their occupants safe. It is so important that BESA continues to set high standards and quality benchmarks,” said Mrs Flint (pic 1). She attacked the government’s record on delivering major
infrastructure projects and said successive administrations continued to repeat the same mistakes.
“It would be better if government did fewer things better,” she
said. “On the low carbon agenda, politicians should create the framework, but then allow industry to do the rest.” She added that trade associations like BESA also played an important role in supporting SMEs. “SMEs are vital to our economy, but you wouldn’t believe it from the business voices you hear on the radio and TV,” said Mrs Flint. “We only hear from the big corporates with the huge PR budgets… but BESA is crucial in getting views of smaller businesses across.” She also pointed out that British SMEs were owed £586bn as a
result of poor payment practices, which “can’t go on”. “The government has rules on late payment, but it is not
enforcing them. Major suppliers on public sector projects are getting paid on time, but they are not passing the money down their supply chains. That’s a scandal.”
The government’s Small Business Commissioner Paul Uppal also spoke at the BESA Conference and said he was trying to change the business perspective on late pay.
Ethical
“Paying late is simply bad business practice with no winners,” he said during a public discussion with BESA’s policy manager Alexi Ozioro. (pic 2) “This is a major ethical issue and I believe it will simply become taboo to behave in this way.” He told the Conference that ‘naming and shaming’ of offenders
had already transformed the gender pay gap and he wanted to see something similar happen with late payment. Mr Uppal also said it was time for the Construction Act to be updated to reflect ongoing late payment problems and that companies should not be able to bid for public sector contracts unless they could demonstrate that they operated fair payment policies. Mrs Flint, who held cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon
Brown, said SMEs were also missing out under the new Apprenticeship Levy. “Apprenticeship starts fell by 40% earlier this year. How can a
basically good idea like the Apprenticeship Levy fail in this way?” she asked the conference. “I fear that Levy-paying companies are being favoured over SMEs and all sorts of training is being badged as ‘apprenticeships’, but does nothing to tackle skills shortages.” However, she said concerns over how Brexit will affect the skills gap should not mask “home-grown” problems with training. “Freedom of movement is a worry for your sector, but as a
country we have to be honest about how we have not focussed enough on training the people we need. We should not be relying on other countries to train our people for us,” said Mrs Flint.
12 December 2018 5 3 2 She also criticised the industry’s record on diversity. “There are 1
more women getting STEM qualifications, but once in the workplace many leave because the structure and culture have not changed,” she added. BESA President Tim Hopkinson (pic 3)opened the conference by
calling for a quick resolution to the Brexit issue. He said a further extension to the transition period would be “hugely unhelpful”. “The one thing businesses crave above all else is certainty,” he
said. He also criticised the Prime Minister for labelling construction craft occupations as “low skilled” and, therefore, subject to the strictest immigration restraints after Brexit. “These are crucial skills that will be central to many of our
forthcoming projects. Describing them in this way also sends out the wrong message to young people considering a career in our sector. Top quality professionals are vital, but we also need excellence in craft skills,” said Mr Hopkinson. Earlier, BESA chief executive David Frise said the Association was making excellence in technical matters its top priority as it seeks to help contractors demonstrate competence and compliance in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy. “Technical is the friend of the contractor,” he said, before
stressing the importance of conferences and face-to-face meetings. “You can’t Google this stuff. You only find out what you need to know when you attend events and speak to people in person…you don’t know what you don’t know,” said Mr Frise.
Complacency role in Grenfell tragedy
Mrs Flint also described the Grenfell Tower disaster as “a major shock” that should lead to an examination of “the rigour of our building inspection regime” adding that: “BESA members are in a great position to provide helpful advice and solutions as they understand these issues.”
A panel of experts then debated the causes of the fire and the lessons to be learned. They concluded that, while technical incompetence was to blame, the disaster was a culmination of growing complacency and over-complex building regulations. “Before Grenfell, the number of fires and deaths in fires were in
4
decline. This led to complacency and a race to the bottom on price,” Conor Logan, technical director of Colt International, told the BESA Conference (pic 4). “However, it would appear that insurance claims were rising for a smaller number of fires, but nobody seemed to relate that to a bigger issue.” He also pointed out that a big part of competence was being able
to recognise when you should not be carrying out specialist work: “We have the crazy situation of fire alarm companies being given contracts to service fire and smoke control systems when they clearly do not have the expertise. “Hopefully, one of the outcomes from the Hackitt Review will be an end to that sort of corner cutting,” said Mr Logan, who is a former chairman of the Smoke Control Association. Delegates also heard that fire engineers were rarely involved at the design stage of building services projects so fire safety elements often had to be “bolted on” after the rest of the m&e works were complete. “Fire engineering is usually seen as an additional cost not an
integral part of the process – if the team is led by an architect it will not be considered until well into the m&e phase,” said Mark Farmer, CEO of Cast and author of the seminal government-sponsored review of the construction labour market ‘Modernise or Die’.
www.heatingandventilating.net
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
