News analysis with BESA
Society needs buildings to work better
The industry should be motivated to make buildings perform better for social and economic reasons; not just to meet safety and climate change goals, according to speakers at the 2023 Annual Conference of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA)
T
he Association’s President, Claire Curran, told delegates that the government’s “fl ip fl opping” on Net Zero and infrastructure policy should not be used as an excuse to delay investment that would “make buildings
work better”. “It makes no diff erence that the government has got cold feet over its Net Zero timetable and the cost of vital infrastructure,” she told her audience of more than 300. “We still have a built environment that is desperate for an upgrade. “We need look no further than the ‘crumbly concrete’ [RAAC] scandal in schools and hospitals for proof that our existing building stock is not being properly maintained. Vital investment in refurbishment and retrofi t has fallen so far behind the curve that many of our built assets are no longer fi t for purpose.” She told the event that improving the built environment should be a priority as it was critical to “the hopes and aspirations of this and future generations”.
Fundamental “The buildings we live and work in are crucial to our well-being and quality of life – and there is nothing more fundamental than that.” Curran also criticised the two thirds of residential landlords who told a recent
survey that they would rather sell their properties than pay for energy effi ciency improvements to meet EPC regulations originally due to come into force in 2025. “Then the government scrapped the deadline anyway,” she said. “What sort of signal does that send? The whole point is that we are supposed to be improving buildings – not letting them continue to degrade.” She added that if the government was serious about wanting to help families
who are struggling with rising costs, then it should support a major programme of building refurbishment and retrofi t to reduce their energy bills. “Whether you think Net Zero is achievable or not, making buildings better is a basic social responsibility,” added Curran. Dr Jo Jolly, head of project futures at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority
(IPA), called for delivery teams to be more “courageous and honest” to achieve sustainability goals and avoid the continual “race to the bottom” on quality and cost.
In her keynote presentation, she told the BESA conference that too many members of project teams felt afraid to call out poor working practices due to the “toxic culture” that aff ected many projects. “We are facing a sh*t show with the climate emergency, and we need to tackle
it with fearlessness,” she said. “These are the last best years we have left to make a diff erence before time runs out. We need to transform our infrastructure
Above: Claire Curran BESA President.
for the benefi t of people. It’s a systemic problem so we need a systemic solution.” Dr Jolly pointed out that construction productivity had “stagnated for decades” and just one in every 200 projects came in on time and to budget. She added that climate change was rarely written into projects briefs, but people could still choose to “do the right thing”. “Projects go wrong because people feel they can’t speak up when they know something isn’t right. Of course, there are cost issues, but we need to ask if we are doing the best we can…and in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals.” Dr Jolly also urged the industry to make better use of digital technologies to gather the data needed to drive better project delivery by allowing for more informed decision making. However, BESA chief executive offi cer David Frise pointed out that many parts of the sector had a “toxic relationship with data” and were reluctant to share their information for fear of it being used against them. “It is so important to improve trust,” said Dr Jolly. “One way of doing that is
store the data securely and control access so that people don’t necessarily know whose data it is.” Creating a more diverse, skilled workforce was another theme for the
conference with BESA’s Future Leaders group of young engineers taking a central role, including acting as ‘roving reporters’ gathering information for the post-conference feedback. “Much of today’s programme is aimed at the emerging generation who will underpin our industry,” said Curran. “They are the ones who will benefi t the most if we get things right and deliver a built environment fi t for their future; but by the same token they have the most to lose if we fail.” She chaired a session where the Future Leaders outlined what employers
could do to make themselves more attractive to the emerging generation, and what younger people had to off er in return including fresh ideas, instinctive understanding of digital technologies, and connectivity. While better pay was described as “desirable” a number of the young engineers said that “feeling valued” and trusted to take on more responsibility was more important. They advised companies to re-think some of their recruitment messaging to make it more directly appealing to a wider cross- section of the population, and to make sustainability a priority as the younger
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November 2023
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