Increased urgency for retrofit plan
BESA President Adrian Hurley looks ahead to the priorities for 2025 and argues that the need for a national programme of building retrofits with full government backing is becoming increasingly urgent.
Many of the UK’s 30 million existing buildings are in dire need of an upgrade.
It is widely acknowledged that this will be a fundamental building block of Net Zero so the government must get to grips with it. The deployment of new technologies, like heat pumps, is exciting and progressive, but there is so much we could still do to improve the performance of what is already built and installed.
However, this enormous task could be hampered by a serious skills shortage. It will take a combination of innovation, more strategic use of digital technology and better recruitment to address, along with a strong focus on diversity.
The number of women coming into the industry remains very low and it’s an added concern that many others leave between the ages of 35 and 44 so don’t get the chance to reach their full potential or rise to leadership positions.
Workforce
According to EngineeringUK’s latest workforce data, women now make up less than 16% of the workforce and, strikingly, the average age at which a female engineer leaves the profession is 43 – compared to 60 for men.
Out of the 6.3 million people working in engineering and technology occupations in the UK in 2023 just 15.7% were women – down from 16.5% the previous year. This equates to a drop of around 38,000, and shortages are particularly pronounced between the ages of 35 to 64.
One of the building engineering sector’s greatest weaknesses is its lack of diversity. The ‘male, pale, stale’ image seems to be a self-perpetuating curse that restricts our ability to reach outside of our traditional recruitment fields. And women leave the profession at twice the rate of men, often citing a lack of support, career progression and challenging work-life balance.
It is very hard for a business to properly serve its community if its workforce does not reflect the ethnic and gender make-up of that community. We also miss out on so many great ideas.
BESA will therefore be relentlessly pursuing ways to improve training and attract new talent throughout 2025 as well as accentuating the opportunity for people already working in the industry to learn new skills.
By restructuring our training and skills service and we hope to revamping how BESA helps members provide evidence of their technical and professional competence and compliance with legislation, industry standards and best practice.
Building safety
This will also be important if the industry is to properly get to grips with the Building Safety Act which is a groundbreaking legislation that goes far beyond safety into every aspect of our work.
The Grenfell tragedy was a defining moment in our industry’s history and highlighted the problems of a ‘lowest cost first’ culture.
Buildings are not just investment opportunities; they are social assets critical to keeping people safe, healthy and productive. Cutting cost should not be sought at the expense of good performance. The good news is that the new ways of working required to make building occupants safer also have positive implications for quality. Better buildings are also safer buildings.
However, the government will have to fully resource and fund the Building Safety Regulator. Without a well-funded planning and enforcement system, vital projects including housing developments, mixed-use projects and hospitals, face delay, additional costs – and possible cancellation.
The government made construction growth one of its first priorities when taking office in July, but this must not lead to another generation of rapidly built, poorly designed homes and commercial buildings.
Implications
Research published by BESA in late 2024 showed that, while awareness of the legislation and its implications was growing, meaningful action remained worryingly slow.
The industry-wide survey, carried out by AMA Research on behalf of BESA, reported that 88% of respondents showed some awareness of the Act with almost a third claiming to be ‘fully aware’. There were higher levels of awareness among BESA members than the industry as a whole, but detailed understanding of roles and responsibilities is mixed and varies by building and project type.
Most contractors said the Act was only having a minimal impact on their businesses – and just 9% reported making ‘significant changes’ to help them comply with the legislation.
Additional responses
Commenting on the findings, Rachel Davidson, BESA’s Director of Specialist Knowledge, said: “We were pleased to see that the level of awareness of the Act is highest among BESA members. However, detailed understanding is patchy at best and varies considerably by building and project type. We must be realistic and acknowledge that the pace of change is too slow and there is still a lot of work to be done to shift the industry’s focus from speed and cost to putting quality first.”
BESA Chief Executive Officer David Frise said the Association was determined to keep playing a leading role in driving culture change and raising standards of building quality, adding: “BESA was 120 years old in 2024 and our members have spent much of that time ensuring buildings can be ‘safe havens’ for people from the deprivations of cold, heat, pollution, noise etc. These aims are even more important in the modern world and the fact that the occupants of Grenfell Tower were failed so desperately was an almighty wake-up call for how large parts of our industry had lost their way.
“Most people do not go out deliberately to do a bad job – a fact that was acknowledged by the Grenfell public inquiry. However, changing the mindset of a whole industry to focus on quality rather than price, and ensuring everyone understands their role and responsibilities under the Act, backed up by consistent evidence of competence (skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour) is the only way forward.”
Big year ahead for heat networks
BESA sees a growing role for heat networks in 2025 when they will become subject to full regulation by the energy watchdog Ofgem. This will place greater emphasis on technical standards and consumer protection.
While welcoming this support for a technology seen as crucial to Net Zero, in general, and more specifically the decarbonisation of UK heat, BESA warned that the expansion of the sector places further pressure on the workforce and called for more investment in training.
The Association accredited two new fully funded heat networks courses in 2024: A short online foundation course, which has been updated and improved to further increase understanding of the sector, and a more in-depth installation and maintenance course to help meet rising demand for skilled professionals.
The Heat Networks Foundation Course covers design, operation and management of heat networks, providing the trainee with an overall awareness. It is aimed at people already working in the building services industry, either technical or non-technical, who are interested in improving their understanding of the technology.
Heat Networks 1 Installation and Maintenance Course is a more comprehensive blend of online theory and hands-on practical training and is designed to meet the rising demand for skilled professionals in heat network systems.
Up to a third of installed systems serving homes and large non-domestic buildings such as hospitals, universities, hotels, supermarkets and office blocks are thought to be in urgent need of upgrading. Many were not designed properly and so do not meet current efficiency standards.
There are also plans for a quality assurance framework to improve reliability and guarantee levels of performance – all of which will increase demand for a larger workforce of well-trained heat network engineers.
Just 2% of the country’s heat is currently distributed by networks, also known as district heating or district energy systems, but the government aims to grow that to 18% by 2050 in line with its wider Net Zero commitments.
As well as the training courses, BESA developed the industry’s test regime for Heat Interface Units (HIUs) to ensure the equipment used to distribute heat from networks to individual homes and commercial buildings also meets rigorous technical standards.
For more information or to register your interest go to the Heat Network Foundation Course or the Heat Network Installation and Maintenance Course sites to secure a fully funded training place.
