NEWS EXTRA
BMF HITS 1000 MEMBERS
BMF CEO John Newcomb announced a major milestone at its Members’ Day Conference and Awards
The BMF has hit a major target, announced by CEO John Newcomb at the annual Members Day Conference and Awards, that of 1,000 members.
“That is a huge achievement. When I first joined the BMF the figure of 1,000 members was mentioned, but it was at a time when trade associations were struggling, so to see that growth - 3 x in the past three years, is amazing,” Newcomb said. What hitting that target enables the BMF to do, Newcomb stressed, is to establish itself as clearly the only trade association that represents the interests of builders’ merchants and building materials suppliers. He said:
“We can claim to be the trade association that represents the entire building materials sector,” That 1,000 members is made up of 521 merchant companies, 314 suppliers, and 1165 service and associate members. Newcomb said that BMF merchant members operate out of 6,500 branches throughout the UK and collectively they turnover just over £50bn. “So we are a significant part of the construction industry and employ just over 202000 people. We are important. We are really important. There are now over 250 trade associations within the wider construction industry, and, the BMF, as calculated by net
ENERGY, WATER AND SKILLS: THE BUILDERS’ MAIN ISSUES
The President of the Federation of Master Builders spoke to BMF Members Day delegates about the main issues facing SME housebuilders and developers as he sees it.
CHRIS CARR IS worried about energy bills. The President of the Federation of Master Builders took to the stage at the BMF Members Day Conference to alert merchants to the organisation’s concerns about the push towards net zero, and the problems that SME builders are likely to face. It sounds counterproductive, but Carr said that he believes household energy bills will in fact rise with newer energy efficiency technology installed rather than
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fall. He said: “We do believe that the energy bills will be higher. I’m really concerned about the effect that the push for energy efficiency will have on energy bills, to be honest. There have been some test cases done in Manchester and Birmingham it does mean that the people living in the properties will have to change the way they use their properties.”
The latest changes to the building regulations were quite
tough for SME developers when they first came in, he added, but they are now starting to settle in. “We do of course have to have the golden thread all the way through now. This means taking photographs of the different ways we build the properties, and then keeping a database from not just us but our customers and our consultants to read through. It’s the golden thread of accountability.”
Another big issue Carr reported
is the UK’s current planning system. “We have a completely failed system, the more we tweak it, the worse it gets.” The problem, he explained, isn’t the policy as such, it’s the delivery. “We have some very good planning departments, but also far too many poor ones. The solution is quite easy really, in my view. You take the poor performing ones and parachute in someone from a high performing authority and if that
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2024
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