Market Intelligence - Inflation Series - First Winter Issue

2023 - Inflation Series

MarketINTEL Insight and market analysis to achieve better value from suppliers

Winter Issue 1

In our new Winter Issue of the Market Intelligence Inflation Series, we provide insights and market analysis geared towards optimising value in your business.

In the face of the ongoing challenges impacting the UK economy, the third instalment of our Inflation Series is a collection of articles from our ERA specialists that thoroughly explores the current economic landscape and its effect on different sectors.

To stay abreast of our most current insights, discover hidden value and refine your business strategy, read our first Winter issue.

WHAT’S INSIDE: A Critical Look at Service Charges - Does the Cap Fit?

By Catherine Anderson

– pages 2-3

Managing Facilities Amidst Turbulence: Inflation, Labour Shortages, and Evolving Building Regulations

By Ian Morrison

– pages 4-7

Inflation and Interest Rates: The Effects on the UK Medical Gas Industry

By Nilesh Prag

– pages 12-13

Premises, Payments, and Premiums – Control Your Controllables

By Chris Wardle

– pages 14-15

New R&D Tax Credit guidance changes the game for claimants

By Paul Gravatt

– pages 8-11 TM

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A Critical Look at Service Charges Does the Cap Fit?

By Catherine Anderson

The topic of service charges often lurks in the background, unnoticed until it emerges as a significant financial burden for tenants within their occupancy costs. With the recent shifts in the economic landscape, particularly in terms of wage inflation and utility costs, the impact of these charges has become more pronounced and concerning.

The Rising Tide of Wage Inflation: The impending increase in the national living wage to £11.44 in April will have a knock-on effect on service charges, particularly those that feature labour-intensive soft FM services like cleaning, security, and reception and so are vulnerable to wage inflation.

Utility costs have remained stubbornly high, forcing landlords to adopt energy efficiency measures along

with threatened government legislation. While these measures are commendable for reducing occupiers’ energy costs, they also introduce potential additional capital costs for tenants if their lease provisions allow it.

This situation presents a classic catch-22: do we sacrifice immediate financial relief for long-term sustainability. It is best resolved through engagement with your landlord and having a good grasp on your contractual liability.

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Service Charge Caps - A Double-Edged Sword: In response to rising service charges, increasingly tenants are negotiating caps, setting an annual ceiling on their liability. While this strategy offers good protection against unforeseen expenses, it’s not without its pitfalls. The service charge costs may be bloated in the first place meaning your cap is set too high. So it’s prudent to undertake a benchmark review to highlight any excessive costs before you sign your new lease.

Landlords may also find ways to circumvent these caps, leading to contentious situations where for example capital expenditure is capitalised over time, costs are unfairly apportioned or hidden in other expense categories charged in addition.

The Overlooked Aspect of Dilapidation Costs: Lastly, an often-overlooked aspect is the rising cost of

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dilapidations at the end of tenancies. With the jump in labour and material costs, the financial liability for tenants at the end of a lease is becoming increasingly burdensome. This situation underscores the need for tenants to be vigilant and proactive in managing and budgeting for these potential costs from the outset of their tenancy agreements.

The sector is facing a complex interplay of factors driven by inflationary pressures and changes in the patterns of use of buildings. As tenants and landlords navigate this challenging landscape, it becomes imperative to approach service charges and occupancy costs with a critical eye at all stages. Understanding your lease provisions and rights, having visibility of costs and benchmarks, whilst engaging with your landlord, should protect you against unfair charges whilst forewarning you of any potential future liabilities.

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Managing Facilities Amidst Turbulence: Inflation, Labour Shortages, and Evolving Building Regulations

By Ian Morrison

Navigating Labour Shortages in Facilities Management Labour shortages present another complex challenge. The sector is experiencing a shift in the labour market, which affects the availability and cost of skilled workers. This shortage impacts project timelines and increases labour costs, forcing managers to explore new strategies for workforce management and recruitment to ensure uninterrupted service delivery. The sector is poised for a paradigm shift towards more intelligent and efficient service delivery models. This involves a more holistic approach to deploying labour within the facilities management function, integrating technological advancements and sustainable practices to optimize labour utilisation and service delivery.

Inflation and Its Impact on Facilities Management Inflation is a driving force reshaping the UK facilities management sector. It directly affects material costs, causing substantial increases ranging from

20 to 70%. This surge in expenses poses significant budgetary challenges for facility managers. As a result, there’s an urgent need for strategic financial reassessment to manage these inflated costs without compromising service quality.

Adapting to Evolving Building Regulations Finally, evolving regulations are fundamentally altering the landscape of facilities management.

These changes necessitate updates in compliance practices and can lead to additional costs in training, equipment, and procedures. Facility managers must stay abreast of these regulatory shifts to ensure their operations remain compliant and efficient.

Post-Brexit, the UK’s labour market has undergone significant changes. The departure of cheaper foreign labour, particularly from Eastern Europe, has left a noticeable gap. Coupled with increases in the minimum wage and the London living wage, the cost of labour has surged. This shift necessitates a strategic re-evaluation of workforce management to maintain a balance between availability, cost and efficiency.

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Both soft (cleaning, security) and hard services (technical maintenance) are experiencing acute labour shortages. These shortages not only inflate costs but also pose operational challenges, demanding innovative solutions to ensure uninterrupted service delivery and high levels of client satisfaction.

In response to rising costs, contractors are renegotiating contracts, often seeking revised terms to align with current market rates. This scenario has put clients in precarious positions, facing either increased costs or the risk of service discontinuation.

In these challenging times, the focus on operational efficiency has never been more crucial. Employing multi-skilled personnel who can undertake various tasks, reducing transport costs, and enhancing energy conservation are pivotal in maintaining service quality while controlling expenditures.

Evolving Building Regulations: A Holistic Approach to Compliance and Safety in Facilities Management

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The landscape of compliance and safety in the built environment has undergone significant changes, particularly in the aftermath of tragic incidents such as the Grenfell Tower fire. Adherence to evolving regulations has transcended beyond a legal obligation; it has become a moral imperative to ensure the safety and well-being of building occupants.

Integrating Holistic Service Delivery Models In addressing these challenges, facilities managers need to adopt a more holistic approach to their design of the most appropriate service delivery model. This approach encompasses a comprehensive view of building maintenance, making it more efficient and effective in tackling labour utilisation.

By integrating various aspects of maintenance under a unified strategy, facility managers can ensure a more robust understanding of how they provide the build occupants a comfortable a safe environment.

This holistic approach not only streamlines operations but also aids in predicative maintenance planning,

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a critical aspect of ensuring compliance, safety and optimising costs.

The Importance of Compliance in Building Management Compliance in this sector is crucial. In the event of an incident, the duty holder – typically the facility manager or property owner – is held accountable.

Failure to comply with regulations can lead to serious legal consequences. There have been many incidents which underscores the importance of not just adhering to regulations but also proactively managing building safety.

Facility managers must therefore be vigilant in their compliance efforts. This involves regular safety

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audits, staying updated with the latest regulations, and implementing necessary changes promptly.

It’s about creating an environment where safety is ingrained in every aspect of facilities management, from routine checks to emergency response planning.

Learning from Past Incidents Reflecting on incidents like Grenfell Tower, it becomes clear that compliance is not just about avoiding legal repercussions; it’s about protecting lives. These tragedies serve as stark reminders of the consequences of non-compliance. Facility managers must therefore be proactive in their approach, ensuring that their buildings not only meet the current standards but are also prepared for future

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regulatory changes. Demonstrating due diligence in these aspects is not just a legal defence; it’s a testament to a commitment towards safety and responsibility.

Balancing material costs, service efficiency, and building compliance has become a juggling act for facility managers. Tailoring services to meet client-specific needs while navigating the economic pressures presents a unique challenge. It is safe to say the UK facilities management sector is at a crossroads, influenced heavily by inflation and interest rate changes. Facility managers must adapt to these changes through innovative strategies, efficient resource management, and a keen understanding of market dynamics. The future of facilities management

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lies in agility and adaptability, ensuring that services remain resilient and responsive to the evolving economic landscape.

I’ve seen firsthand the evolving demands and challenges within the built environment. Our team is uniquely positioned, drawing from years of experience and a diverse skill set, to cater precisely to the needs of our clients. Our solution design and procurement methodologies are robust and innovative, designed to meet current needs while ensuring sustainable results over time. The breadth of FM today is expansive, encompassing substantial budgets that are, unfortunately, often underappreciated and increasingly constrained due to economic pressures.

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New R&D Tax Credit guidance changes the game for claimants Adding risk and missing opportunity for the poorly advised

By Paul Gravatt

HMRC has shaken up the R&D Tax Credit filing process by introducing new guidelines for claimants to follow.

The new guidance introduces a lot of non-statutory expectations and recommendations for preparing R&D claims, and in turn this gives HMRC a whole raft of new reasons on why they could decline to accept an R&D claim – based on “insufficient information”.

However, if the new guidance can be followed, it gives R&D claimants an opportunity to protect themselves and make it much harder for HRMC to reject a claim – provided they have followed the new guidance.

HMRC now wants claimants to create a lot of documentation and information about their R&D claim that wasn’t previously a formal requirement. They recommend much of this should be created at the outset of the R&D project rather than retrospectively when the claim is prepared.

The new Guidelines for Compliance (GfC) On 31 October 2023, HMRC published detailed new “Guidelines for Compliance” (GfC) which seek to clarify what has recently become a very uncertain process for companies claiming R&D Tax Credits. Has your R&D

advisor explained the ramifications?

Do the new guidelines replace the old Guidelines?

HMRC points out that the new GfC do not replace either the existing 2004 or the updated 2023 BIS Guidelines provided by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and that claimants should continue to refer to these when preparing an R&D claim.

Despite this, a question mark remains over whether HMRC is trying to effectively supplant the 2004 Guidelines as the GfC reproduce some parts of the Guidelines but omits others.

In practice, are HMRC caseworkers going to refer to the new GfC and stop looking at the original Guidelines? Furthermore, do we need two largely parallel sets of guidance along with the CIRD manual and the notes for SME claimants?

Crucially, the new GfC are strictly outward facing in terms of what they expect from claimants, but fails to address many of the significant, internal

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misunderstandings amongst their new compliance staff such as what is meant by “materially affecting the underlying technology”, or “the company’s own knowledge or capability”, or whether you need to apply new methods of development to achieve your advance.

That means that claimants who are confronted by staff who do not understand the Guidelines still have no obvious port of call to achieve a quick correction of approach.

What is HMRC aiming to achieve through the new guidelines?

The enormous growth in the number of R&D claims being filed in recent years has been accompanied by a significant increase in suspected levels of fraud and error, which HRMC estimates now costs the Treasury £1.13 billion.

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This was compounded by the fact that HMRC only examined a small number of claims in any detail.

Whilst the 2004 Guidelines set out the actual legal requirements for making an R&D claim, and HMRC had recommended that claimants maintain records, there has never been any specific documentary evidence required to accompany a claim.

This led to a number of rogue advisory firms springing up, which, along with many accountancy practices (including some of the very biggest by the way) with scant understanding of R&D, took full advantage of the light-touch approach to claiming R&D Tax Credits by filing claims for activity that wasn’t qualifying R&D.

While this estimate is questionable, and based on a dubious methodology, where incorrectly refused claims are treated as non-compliant without further scrutiny, there is no doubt that there has been a significant growth in ineligible claims over recent years.

As the scale of R&D Tax Credit fraud and error became apparent, HMRC began to realise that it needed to be clearer about what it expected of claimants. The introduction of the mandatory Additional Information Form (AIF) to accompany all claims from 8 August 2023 was a first step towards this, and the new Guidelines for Compliance go further by setting out additional requirements for identifying and recording R&D activities.

This is at least partially because, prior to August 2023, R&D claims could be filed without providing any written substantiation that R&D had taken place.

The good news is that R&D advisors and their clients now have a much clearer understanding of HMRC’s approach in terms of:

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The activity that can be claimed as R&D

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How to document the advance planning of an R&D project

•

Defining a Competent Professional, and considering their role

This new guidance does however highlight the continued effort by HMRC to shift the focus away from a project seeking an advance towards a project seeking to resolve an uncertainty, and with a further requirement that each specific uncertainty be detailed exactly with a separate plan for resolving each one.

This reflects a desire by HMRC to limit the R&D on a larger project to a lesser amount of R&D on smaller technically uncertain subprojects. (It should be noted that is not supported by the 2004 or 2023 Guidelines).

There is also a new emphasis on documenting advance planning of the project. There is no requirement in the Guidelines for a written plan, and many smaller companies will proceed without one, but it would seem to make the agreement of a claim easier, so it is certainly worth doing.

Even without a written plan, the requirements to substantiate a project do mean that an advance

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needs to be being sought, and that the work to do so is conducted systematically, so some sort of plan is obviously needed.

However, the specifics detailed by HMRC fail to understand that from the company point of view it is the commercial project which is the end result, and which will be properly documented. The R&D may only be a part of that so, for the first time, HMRC seems to be requiring that the R&D project be considered and documented as a separate activity from the overall project. This represents a considerable shift in emphasis.

Does it make handling an HMRC enquiry easier?

This new guidance could be particularly helpful in the event that HMRC opens a Compliance Check into a claim.

If the R&D is documented in a way that meets the new GfC then HMRC will have less grounds to refuse a claim.

If the new requirements have not been met, then it they may be quite likely to refuse a claim on the basis that the GfC have not been followed, and so there is insufficient evidence to support the claim.

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What about the impact on R&D advisors?

For the more quality-focused and technically capable R&D advisor, the GfC provide a clear opportunity for differentiation in what was crowded market where every advisor was claiming the same capabilities as each other. The need to expertly understand R&D projects and to provide convincing documentation has increased – which is regarded as good news by the “approved advisors” that have passed ERA’s due diligence process.

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If a claimant can put together the required information contemporaneously then HMRC would seem to have very few grounds for challenging a claim unless the competent professional proves not to be so.

Whilst claimants could never guarantee not having an enquiry, they would be in a significantly weaker position if they hadn’t followed the new guidance.

How will the new Guidelines impact on claimants?

Are you relying on a “general Tax” specialist from your accountants, who is unlikely to be fully informed?

(Akin to relying on your GP to advise you on the latest available specialist oncology treatments).

The good news is that anyone who follows the GfC can insulate themselves from the risk of a prolonged HMRC enquiry resulting in the disallowance of their claim.

Or an advisor who has been getting away with poor quality documentation and reports for years, lacking the competence or desire to “up their game”?

This new guidance puts a Competent Professional clearly in the frame and it effectively tells claimants that if they’ve followed the proper guidance then it’s very likely that their claim will be accepted, particularly if they’ve cited a legitimate Competent Professional.

ERA, through approved partners, offer a “no cost, no obligation” R&D compliance check/audit service. Reach out if you’d like to reduce enquiry risk. Perversely, these compliance checks often identify areas of opportunity too – qualifying R&D activities that poor quality advisors have failed to identify for their client…. creating opportunities for larger credits and reduced risk. A real “win win” scenario.

If claimants can go through the steps outlined by HMRC (although some of them may prove impracticable at least at the level of detail suggested) then they ought to be able to say to HMRC “we’ve done everything that you asked so why are you resisting our claim?”

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your R&D Tax Credit claim, please contact Paul Gravatt pgravatt@expensereduction.com 07860780770

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Inflation and Interest Rates: The Effects on the UK Medical Gas Industry

By Nilesh Prag

In an era marked by economic volatility, the UK’s medical gas market is facing significant challenges. It is essential to understand how inflation and interest rates are shaping its landscape.

This article offers an in-depth analysis of these impacts which have a significant and multifaceted impact on the cost of industrial gases, influenced by global factors such as energy prices, supply chain disruptions, and consumer demand.

The inflationary trend has led to increased production costs and subsequently higher market prices for medical gases, particularly affecting sectors like pharmaceuticals and medical device manufacturing, where these gases are essential. Additionally, the UK has seen a significant rise in energy prices, directly impacting the cost of producing medical gases. Higher interest rates also indirectly affect medical gas costs by tightening budgetary constraints for healthcare providers and manufacturers. The demand for medical gases is also linked to the prevalence of diseases requiring respiratory and cardiovascular support, as well as the need for upgraded healthcare facilities and equipment.

The pandemic has introduced new challenges in the supply chain for medical gases, emphasizing the need for a robust and adaptable supply chain to ensure uninterrupted supply.

The UK’s medical gas market is furthermore dominated by a few major suppliers, creating a competitive yet somewhat constrained environment. Stakeholders in the medical gas industry need to understand these dynamics to adapt and remain competitive in this critical sector.

Niche Focus of Medical Gases Medical gases, crucial in treatments such as respiratory and cardiovascular care, define a specific yet crucial segment of healthcare. Their use in hospitals, clinics, and emergency care underscores their importance. This niche market, while smaller in scale compared to the entire healthcare sector, is vital for patient well-being and treatment efficacy.

Price Inflation: A Dominant Challenge The escalating cost of materials stands out as a primary concern. This inflationary trend has far-reaching implications, leading to increased production costs and, consequently, higher market prices for medical gases. Its impact is particularly acute in sectors like pharmaceuticals and medical device manufacturing, where these gases are essential.

Energy Prices Fuelling Cost Increases The UK has seen a significant rise in energy prices, directly impacting the cost of producing medical gases. This increase in energy costs translates into higher operational expenses for manufacturers, subsequently influencing the market pricing of medical gases.

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Healthcare Financing and Tax Implications

Post-Pandemic Supply Chain Challenges

The financial landscape of healthcare, including rising costs, tax implications, and social contributions, indirectly affects medical gas prices. These factors increase the overall healthcare expenditure, challenging the affordability and accessibility of medical gases for healthcare providers and patients.

The pandemic has introduced new challenges in the supply chain for medical gases, including increased restrictions and logistical hurdles. These issues emphasize the need for a robust and adaptable supply chain to ensure uninterrupted supply.

Interest Rates: A Secondary but Significant Impact

The UK’s medical gas market is dominated by a few major suppliers, creating a competitive yet somewhat constrained environment. This market structure influences price dynamics and availability, posing challenges and opportunities for new and existing players.

While inflation plays a more direct role, the influence of interest rates cannot be ignored. Higher interest rates elevate the cost of capital in the healthcare sector, indirectly affecting medical gas costs by tightening budgetary constraints for healthcare providers and manufacturers.

Market Demand and Size Dynamics The demand for medical gases is intrinsically linked to the prevalence of diseases requiring respiratory and cardiovascular support. The UK’s medical gas market is significant, driven by the need for quality healthcare services and advanced treatment options.

Healthcare Infrastructure as a Demand Driver Modern healthcare infrastructure demands highquality medical gases. The need for upgraded facilities and equipment directly impacts the demand for these gases, highlighting the importance of reliable and quality supply.

Key Players in the UK Market

In conclusion, the medical gas market is expected to witness significant growth driven by various factors such as the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing demand for home healthcare, and technological advancements. Furthermore, the UK’s medical gas market is facing challenges due to economic volatility, inflation, and interest rates, which have led to increased production costs and higher market prices for medical gases. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for stakeholders to adapt and remain competitive in this critical sector, and as the market evolves, so must the strategies and approaches of those involved, ensuring that the supply of medical gases remains consistent and affordable, despite economic challenges.

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Premises, Payments, and Premiums – Control Your Controllables

By Chris Wardle

You don’t need me to lay out how tough things are in Hospitality and Leisure (H&L) right now. Inflation, staffing, property costs, cost of living crisis, high guest expectations, introducing and funding new tech… the list goes on. One or two of these happening concurrently would have been challenging but having them all appear at once is overwhelming.

I speak with hospitality businesses regularly and the mantra from their leaders can be disappointing regarding the action they are taking to reduce costs. In general, I have encountered some truly disruptive approaches, however the common approach usually consists of reducing staff numbers, reviewing shift patterns, reducing menu choices and reducing or withdrawing service on slower days and times.

These are operational decisions that have a place for those who need to make such radical changes for the good of the business. But what I hear less often is deep discussion of how they are reviewing their indirect spend.

Define it how you wish; I consider indirect spend as being goods and services not for resale. And there are certainly some significant indirect costs within H&L, including Buildings, Food and Beverage, Banking and Payments, Insurance, Marketing, Energy, IT, Waste.

How much do you spend on these areas each year?

What would a 30% reduction in this figure enable you to do?

Anyone can save money. But doing it in such a manner as to maintain quality and service takes a bit more effort.

There’s lots that can be done to improve efficiencies in these areas rather than just slashing costs and I wrote two short articles earlier in the year giving some specific examples.

We’ve all endured savings reviews that have promised lots and delivered little. So why does your current efficiency drive not deliver quite as expected? After all, times are hard, so the need is certainly there.

There are 4 reasons why your indirect procurement might not be as effective as you want: 1. A lack of category-specific expertise Your head chef is an expert in the dark culinary arts. When they need a specific set of ingredients to pull a menu together, they know what they are, what to look for and where to get them from. Why is it that same mentality is so often not the case when buying indirect goods and services?

I see many examples of suppliers being used who aren’t the right fit for a client. In some cases, a sub-optimal solution that costs way over the odds is the norm and has been for years. You could be needlessly paying more than you should to a banking or FM partner for a solution that doesn’t fit your business.

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Nurturing this knowledge so that your team becomes the intelligent customer in all categories is the way forward.

What’s the alternative? Googling 3 different suppliers and choosing the cheapest? (Bad). Using peer reviews (Better).

Aligning your business needs with best-fit suppliers (Best).

A client was using numerous FM suppliers to tend to their estate. By consolidating 90% of their requirements under an over-arching FM contract, leaving niche capability as was, communication of urgent issues led to quicker response times, better scheduled maintenance and a massive surge in capability of monitoring the estate. This had long been an aspiration, but the internal team did not have the relevant market knowledge to know how to take forward such a project.

2. An imperfect approach Effective purchasing is a process with several steps. It isn’t simply identifying the correct supplier. And it isn’t just tendering. It isn’t negotiating an arbitrary percentage reduction with existing suppliers and moving on.

It’s data collection and presentation, requirement, market research, tendering, analysis of options, implementation and auditing of the revised solution.

We can all do individual elements of this process; however, they are interdependent and must all be fully executed if you are to succeed. Auditing is the area that is consistently performed poorly. And by succeed, I mean to grab the opportunities that this approach will present.

Too many times I hear of savings programs that didn’t save, efficiency activity that wasn’t efficient, and new solutions that were essentially repackaged old solutions.

A client spot-bought F&B items as their default position.

They were proud of their array of single-digit discounts across numerous lines. When we reviewed their entire F&B spend we saved them c£200k pa, retaining their existing supplier.

3. Procurement isn’t seen as business-critical Closely allied to bullet point above is the isolation that many H&L purchasing teams operate within. These people are charged with spending vast swathes of stakeholder and business funds to feed the operations

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machine that is the beating heart of your business.

Yet how often does your senior team get involved with supporting procurement decisions? Is purchasing ever discussed at board level? Does it link with your strategic plan and is it cascaded down to those in the business who need to know?

I’ve seen excellent potential solutions torpedoed by stakeholders who were completely unaware of what was going on. Investing in the wrong solution can be very costly. Plan/ Review/ Execute.

All clients rightly focus on generating additional revenue.

But it’s important to pay attention to the funds currently sat within your business, some of which may be going unchecked through a potential lack of purchasing focus.

How does a 7-figure saving per annum compare to the value a new client is worth? Do both. Effectively and comprehensively. And keep doing them.

4. Hit and miss auditing of the chosen solution Objectively reviewing procurement performance is critical. If you aren’t comparing actual with expected then your solution is at risk of underperforming, and your business planning will be flawed.

Are pricing, service, quality, availability, delivery, compatibility and customer service as expected? If not, why? Is your team using the new solution? How were they informed of the solution? Base your decisions on the management information collected, having built this requirement into your procurement.

We identify mis-billing in almost all client projects over time. It is not unusual to obtain thousands of pounds of credit notes over the term of an engagement. Without this auditing function clients can end up paying fees that differ from those expected from the tender. Do you check?

As the Serenity prayer states, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.

There are many things H&L business cannot influence. But there are also many things we can do and must do.

Control the Controllables. Make it your new mantra.

2023 - Inflation Series

MarketINTEL Insight and market analysis to achieve better value from suppliers

Winter Issue 1

“

The specialist knowledge and experience of Pritesh and his team achieved results we simply could not have replicated ourselves.”

ANDREW MASON, FINANCE AND IT DIRECTOR, IBP GROUP

“

As the opportunity to reduce our office space and to truly embrace agile working became clearer, we looked to ERA to help us on that journey. Together we’ve explored and identified cost-effective options to transform our back-office spending whilst minimising disruption to our operations. ERA’s hands-on approach helps us to implement, refine and sustain the gains that we’ve made. With ERA we know we’ve always got experts on call.”

CHARLIE JONES, PARTNER & FINANCE DIRECTOR, WOLFERSTANS SOLICITORS LLP

“

I gave ERA quite a challenge in getting them to understand the schools current situation quickly, prepare and submit the tender and then report findings - all for an early September installation; this was all achieved within three weeks. I was suitably impressed at the level of detail and professionalism and short tunraround in delivering their findings.”

GUY COLLINS-DOWN, BURSAR - FINTON HOUSE SCHOOL

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