Click here to listen to the latest FM news on Friday, 7th October 2022
Welcome to InTheNews – covering all the FM news you may have missed over the last week:
Following a competitive tender process, Fusion21 is delighted to announce the suppliers successfully appointed to our national Reactive Repairs and Empty Buildings Framework worth up to £250 million over a four year period.
46 specialist firms, with 61% being SMES, have secured a place on the framework developed to support housing associations and local authorities with a wide range of reactive works and services, covering responsive and out-of-hours reactive emergency repairs, void property repairs, and outsourced call handling on a 24/7 or out-of-hours basis.
You can view the list on the FMBD website.
Industry leaders are very concerned and reasonably warning that the ongoing severe staff shortages affecting the £59bn cleaning, hygiene and waste sector could cause any ‘twindemic’ this winter to be much worse.
The situation could become absolutely critical and be exacerbated due to the cleaning sector recruitment crisis if UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) fears of a resurgence in flu infections, coinciding with a major wave of Coronavirus cases, comes to pass, the British Cleaning Council (BCC) is warning.
The cleaning, hygiene and waste sector – which is one of the ten biggest industries in the UK – has played a vital role in keeping people safe, healthy and well during the Covid-19 pandemic so far, but that work could be hampered by the 18-month long staffing crisis.
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has urged the government to include reducing energy demand as part of its strategy for economic growth and review of net zero policy.
It said a strong focus on energy saving could help the Prime Minister Liz Truss achieve her aim of delivering net zero in a ‘pro-business and pro-growth’ way and could play a key role in improving energy security and make the country more resilient to financial and climate shocks.
The Association said it was important that former energy minister Chris Skidmore considered demand-side energy measures as part of his three-month review of the UK’s net zero strategy commissioned by new Business and Energy Secretary Jacob Rees Mogg.
In business, Bouygues completed the acquisition of Equans, a key milestone in its development.
The final purchase price for the Equans shares is €6.1 billion. After factoring in the net debta of Equans on the day of acquisition, the impact on the net debta of Bouygues is €6.5 billion (including €130 million paid to Engie on 12 May 2022 on signature of the Share Purchase Agreement).
The new business segment comprised of Equans and Bouygues’ Energies & Services arm will generate around €17 billion in sales, employ around 97,000 people in over 20 countries and enjoy increased capacity to design and roll out innovative and sustainable products and services.
You can find out more on news.fmbusinessdaily.com
