The BESA National Conference will feature two ‘must attend’ sessions for building engineering contractors linked to the future of cooling. The one-day conference held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London on November 21st has an overall theme of: ‘Competence, compliance and climate change – turning theory into practice’. It will consider how the building engineering industry can meet many of the […]

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has welcomed the updated Prompt Payment guidance, recently published by the Government, clarifying what suppliers should take note of in their approach to payment in major procurement contracts. This update reiterates the Government’s November 2018 announcement that from 1 September 2019, any organisation that bids for a central government contract worth over £5 million […]

John Norfolk has been elected to serve as President of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) for 2019/20. He was confirmed in his role at last week’s annual general meeting and takes over from Tim Hopkinson of E Poppleton & Son, who served for two years. Mr Norfolk is senior project manager at Imtech Engineering Services. He was chair of […]

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has paid tribute to its former President Graham Manly OBE, who died last week. The Association said he was “an absolute gentleman and unifying figure, who leaves a huge legacy and whose death will be mourned right across the building engineering sector”. A hugely popular and widely respected doyen of the building services industry, […]

Ahead of next week’s Budget, BESA and ECA have called on Chancellor Philip Hammond MP to take decisive action to support small and medium sized businesses in the construction and engineering industry. The two leading engineering services trade bodies have issued a five-point plan to the Treasury, calling for the following to be prioritised in the Budget to boost productivity, […]

The UK’s first test standard for Heat Interface Units (HIUs), which is managed by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), has been revised and updated in response to growing demand from the district heating industry. Two UK-based test houses have now been approved to carry out testing to the standard – BSRIA and Enertek International – in addition to the […]

The President of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has warned that major construction and infrastructure projects will not be delivered unless the industry changes the way it works. Tim Hopkinson told association members and guests at the annual BESA President’s Lunch that wider adoption of off-site construction methods and digital procurement would be essential to deliver crucial projects like […]

Over three in four engineering services organisations (77 per cent) say turnover increased or remained steady in Q2 2018, despite rising material and labour costs. These are the findings of the latest BESA/ECA/SELECT/SNIPEF quarterly sector-wide Building Engineering Business Survey, sponsored by Scolmore. Compared to Q1 2018, almost two thirds (62 per cent) of respondents reported an increase in material costs, […]

Reforming cash retentions has unprecedented support in Parliament Almost one in three MPs (207) now support the Aldous Bill, following major efforts by BESA and ECA to secure support for reforming cash retentions in construction. The backing comes alongside an unprecedented coalition of over 80 industry bodies and trade associations, representing over 580,000 businesses and sole traders. This is the […]

Operatives across the building services contracting sector will receive salary increases of more than 5% by 2020, following the latest round of national wage negotiations between employers and the trade union Unite. The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) – representing the industry’s employers – settled on an hourly rate increase of 2.5% from this October followed by a further 2.75% […]