Newsmakers

1PLUMBERS MUST BONE UP ON HEAT PUMPS The Social Market Foundation has warned that the government’s plan to decarbonise home heating does not give plumbers enough incentive to train to install the heat pumps with which ministers want to replace gas boilers. The group’s talks with plumbers suggest that many see litt le reason to spend time and money gett ing the skills needed for heat pumps. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-Plumbers

LINK BUSINESS RATES TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY – JLL 2 WORKERS WANT FLEXIBLE TECH As many as 73 per cent of UK workers would choose their next employer based on flexible technology and health and wellbeing support, according to a survey by ergonomic office furniture firm Ergotron. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-Tech

HSE LAUNCHES MENTAL HEALTH DRIVE The Health and Safety Executive has begun a national campaign to help businesses recognise the signs of work-related stress 3 and make it routine to tackle these issues. Work-related stress and poor mental health risk are becoming a health and safety crisis for the UK’s workplaces, warns the regulator. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-HSE

Business rates regulations must be changed to contribute to the move towards zero carbon, according to JLL in its report,

Business Rates and Sustainability. The real estate adviser advocates a change to the rating multiplier so that business rates would be linked to a property’s energy efficiency. tinyurl.com/ Fac0122-Energy 4

WOMEN ARE 50% OF UK WORKFORCE BUT ONLY 31% OF BOSSES

5BUILDING SECTOR MUST TAKE PRIDE IN TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE Ethical trade membership firm Sedex has reported that while women make Paul Drechsler, the CBI’s ex-president, up half of the global workforce, only a expects the building engineering sector to quarter are in management and a third play a key role in addressing climate change. in supervisory roles. Female workforce

He told the annual Building Engineering participation is 60 per cent in services Services Association president’s lunch that industry to buildings such as cleaning, 69 leaders must be more vocal about their achievements per cent in human health activities, to promote the role of building services in supporting and 62 per cent in apparel health and wellbeing. But he added that this would manufacturing. But only require the sector to compete harder for talent to 26 per cent are in computing. address skills challenges and improve staff diversity. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-Climate tinyurl.com/Fac0122-Women

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EV CHARGING POINTS TO BE MANDATORY IN NEW-BUILDS LIVING WAGE RISE

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11 CLEANING STAFF FACE ‘BURNOUT’ A lack of contract cleaning staff could put remaining workers at risk of “burnout” and increase costs for contractors, says the

British Cleaning Council (BCC). Jim Melvin, group

CEO at The Exclusive

Services Group and BCC chair, told BBC Radio 4 some contractors were asking clients to open buildings 24/7 to clean. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-

Cleaning The Living Wage Foundation announced increases to the ‘real’ Living Wage rates during its annual Living Wage Week celebration in November. More than 300,000 people working for almost 9,000 real Living Wage Employers throughout the country are gett ing a vital pay boost as the new Living Wage rates rose to £9.90 across the UK, and £11.05 in London. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-Wage 74% OF SUPPLY CHAIN HEADS DO NOT TRACK FOOD WASTE A Sodexo survey shows that the link between food waste and carbon emissions is still not understood and that a “radical, rapid change is needed”. It examined food-buying trends at some of the UK’s biggest firms. Nearly 74 per cent of senior decision-makers don’t track the amount of food they want. tinyurl. com/Fac0122Sodexo

FM IS KEY TO DIGITAL WORKPLACE All new and renovated buildings will need CHANGE electric vehicle charging points installed in Digital services them from next year, Prime Minister Boris firm Ricoh UK’s Johnson has said. The rules will also apply to report, Leading 7 new homes and those undergoing large-scale renovations. The government claims that this announcement builds on the 250,000 workplace and home charge points it had already supported to date. tinyurl.com/Fac0122-EV 8 Change at Work – Devising Your Digital Workplace Strategy, considers the impact of the pandemic on current and future FM roles. FM professionals who took part in one of several round table events examined the role of four key departments: facilities, HR, IT, and finance and operations. tinyurl.com/ Fac0122-Workplace ncrease costs the IWFM PIONEERS WORKPLACE TOOL ncil IWFM has joined with Liverpool Business oup School and Workplace Unlimited 10 BCC o 4 ere n an. 2to launch The Return on Workplace Investment, or ROWI Tool. The tool is a calculator to measure the impact of workplace projects on organisational performance. tinyurl. com/Fac0122-Tool 12

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