Whilst our business and niche sector in energy consultancy/zero carbon design and sustainable building compliance is growing at a fast and exciting pace, 2011 will be a cautious year as our clients will be moving tentatively into 2011 with the hope of a more confident UK economic recovery.
In 2010, at Syntegra Consulting we have seen the perception of energy consulting and indeed to our business change as a variety of clients throughout a project life-cycle approached us for consultancy advice. From pre-planning/design/construction/post occupancy through to strategic board level consultancy.
The ever increasing amount of legislation is causing a real headache for construction professionals/local authorities and clients alike. Because of this non-compliance continues to be an issue along with the quality of 3rd party companies re-training and attempting to jump on the energy consultancy band-wagon who have limited previous experience in the sector. We would urge the government in 2011 to focus on enforcement of the legislation they put in place, along with a more selective vetting procedures for training courses in the industry.
I would hope that in 2011 the government can make more assistance available for SME businesses, especially for public sector contracts. The procurement process is still too onerous and subjectively unfavourable for SME companies to win business in this sector, unless Joint-Venture consortiums are formed. -This will undoubtedly stimulate the economic recovery.
Although the much publicised public sector cuts will have a somewhat direct impact in the quality level of service, they only need to strip out the redundant layers of processes and bureaucracy to reach the same level of quality. Other than the 2012 Olympics and major infrastructure projects the public sector projects(e.g hospitals and education) will indeed be reduced in 2011. 2011 will see professional residential developers with schemes circa 5No.+ continue to align to progress opportunistic buy and build strategies, whilst private self-builders will be tentative in their development as they take time to understand all the new legislation before committing. We predict laboratories, pharmacies, leisure and hotels will be strong.
The UK needs to now beleive that the UK economy is on the road to recovery and key decision makers need to take some sensible strategic risks to primarily stimulate their businesses/departments before we see and indeed feel a real and noticeable change in the UK economy.
Alan King – Director of Syntegra Consulting Ltd
