Members in Scotland asked us to arrange informal gatherings where they could meet one another, share ideas, and discuss the issues that matter to their businesses. This is why we hosted a Scottish Builder’s Breakfast in the FMB Scotland office from 7am on 23 October. The strong coffee and freshly made bacon rolls providing the stimulus for members to share experiences in a relaxed setting.
My thanks to FMB member Alastair Raitt who is also a member of your Scotland Board and FMB’s Managing Board who co-hosted the breakfast with me. The conversation flowed with members sharing various tips on pricing work and managing relationships with clients. One member said:
“Thank you for hosting the breakfast session. It was one of the most genuine and useful discussions I’ve been part of in a long time.”
I’ll be looking to run more Builder’s Breakfasts and not just in Edinburgh, so keep an eye on the website and member App for news. Hopefully I’ll see you bright and early for a builders’ breakfast one morning.
What’s in the pipeline?
If your business provides construction services for public sector clients, and if you are considering doing so, then a very useful free tool is the online Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool. As the name suggests, the tool gives visibility to planned and anticipated public sector construction spend.
I attended a webinar hosted by the Scottish Futures Trust about the improvements made to this tool. These include
- More visibility of construction projects that are under £2m contract value
- Increased transparency on the route to market, especially on frameworks and their renewal dates
Built Environment Academy
Members might be aware that earlier this year in London, the Build Academy pilot programme was created by the FMB, CITB, and Shooters Hill Sixth Form College. The objective being to give young people practical skills and hands-on experience to and help them become site-ready from day one.
North Lanarkshire Council have developed a Buit Environment Academy model which is aimed at setting pathways into employment, boosting jobs and local economic growth. They will meet me to learn about our priorities on skills and training for members. At this stage, I can’t promise that this will lead to an FMB Build Academy in the central belt based on the programme in London, but progress at least.
BEST Fest
Paisley town hall was the venue for this year’s BE-ST Fest summit hosted by Built Environment Sustainable Transformation. I know some members have benefitted from their low carbon or Passivhaus practical training but this event focused on how retrofit can be scaled up. I made the point that even with financing in place, it will be quality local contractors and their workers across Scotland that are needed to deliver fabric and other upgrades to our homes and buildings.
Please reach out to me if you would like to find out more about anything in this article.
Authors
Gordon Nelson
Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland
