Behind the Built Environment

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Behind the Built Environment, a podcast from BESA where we delve into the latest industry news in the building engineering services sector. Join us for insightful discussions and exclusive interviews with leading industry experts, as we explore the trends and innovations shaping the future of the built environment and what impact they will have on you and your business. Find us at https://www.thebesa.com/

Oct 1

Designing for Failure, Safety and the Future

In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, David Frise, Chief Executive of BESA, speaks with Dave Cooper MBE, President of CIBSE and a lift and escalator engineer with more than four decades of experience across engineering, safety, education, standards and expert witness work. Dave explains how an apprenticeship on the railway led him into the highly specialised world of lift engineering, and why collaboration between different engineering disciplines is essential to delivering better buildings. The conversation explores why lifts should be considered much earlier in the design process, how technology and AI could help predict failures, and why designing and maintaining buildings around whole-life value is so important. This episode covers: • Why lifts and escalators are critical to modern buildings and the growth of cities• How collaboration between engineers, consultants, architects and contractors can deliver better buildings• Why clients need to consider vertical transportation at the earliest stages of a project• How AI and machine learning could improve lift performance and predict failures before they happen• The difference between designing for failure and managing failure• Why maintenance should move from reactive repairs towards anticipating when components need replacing• How value engineering can become a false economy when capital cost takes priority over whole-life cost• Why product selection and installation quality both matter to long-term performance• The importance of designing buildings for resilience and future requirements• What competence really means beyond qualifications, including knowledge, skills and behaviours• Why the industry faces a skills shortage and needs to make building engineering careers more attractive to young people• The role of apprenticeships and combining practical experience with academic qualifications• Why engineers need both specialist expertise and a broader understanding of the built environment• The challenge of making technical standards accessible to the engineers working at the coalface Dave also discusses his research into escalator safety, including the role of human behaviour and the need to challenge assumptions about why accidents happen. He argues that better engineering decisions require a clearer understanding of how buildings and their systems are actually used. [00:00] - Introduction & Dave Cooper's Career[01:00] - Quick-Fire Questions[03:45] - Lift Engineering & Collaboration[07:30] - The History and Importance of Lifts[10:30] - Designing Lifts for Modern Buildings[13:30] - AI, Technology & Predictive Systems[17:30] - Safety, Accidents & Human Behaviour[21:00] - Failure, Maintenance & Reliability[24:00] - Value Engineering & Whole-Life Cost[28:00] - Future-Proofing Buildings[31:00] - Competence, Skills & Qualifications[35:00] - Attracting the Next Generation of Engineers[38:00] - Specialism vs the Bigger Picture[40:00] - Dave's Career Legacy & Standards[42:00] - "King for a Day" & Outro Behind The Built Environment is the official podcast of BESA (Building Engineering Services Association). We dive into the regulations, challenges, people and innovations shaping the future of UK construction and building engineering.
Aug 27

Construction Cannot Reform While Lowest Price Still Wins

Construction cannot improve quality, productivity, and building safety while commercial models continue to reward the lowest price, push risk down the supply chain, and encourage short-term decision-making. In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, David Frise, Chief Executive of BESA, speaks with Paul Beeston, Partner and Head of Industry and Service Insight at RLB, who has more than 25 years of experience across the built environment and has recently joined the Construction Leadership Council board to lead work on reforming construction’s business models. Paul argues that construction’s commercial model is not fundamentally broken, but that decades-old procurement practices are increasingly struggling in a market where clients expect more from their supply chains. At the same time, businesses face greater volatility, risk and pressure. The conversation explores how better governance, smarter procurement, and fairer risk allocation could build stronger businesses and deliver better project outcomes. This episode covers: Why good governance starts with strong client leadership, clear decision-making and transparencyWhy lowest-price procurement can undermine quality and create the wrong behaviours from the outsetHow risk is pushed down the supply chain and what sensible risk allocation should look likeThe case for earlier and more open engagement with contractors and specialist subcontractorsWhy retentions should be abolished and the potential unintended consequences of replacing them with bondsHow the Building Safety Act is changing attitudes towards quality, competence and accountabilityWhy right-first-time delivery can provide clients with better protection than relying on contractual or financial securityThe challenge of measuring construction productivity without losing sight of quality, social value and workforce outcomesWhy whole-life value and building performance need to carry more weight in procurement decisionsHow data, AI, partnering and new commercial models could reshape construction over the next five years Paul also challenges one of construction’s most persistent habits: treating price as the easiest definition of value. With RLB research showing that 40% of procurement activity is still selected purely on price, meaningful reform will require clients and the wider industry to look beyond capital cost and understand the long-term outcomes they are actually buying. Ultimately, the episode asks whether construction can create a commercial environment where every part of the supply chain understands the value it contributes and how that contribution connects to better outcomes for clients, businesses and society.
Aug 6

Installers Face New Rules as Self Certification Schemes Are Reformed

Self-certification schemes sit at the heart of millions of building projects. Still, proposed reforms could bring greater scrutiny to how installers demonstrate competence, notify work and comply with building regulations. In this episode of Behind The Built Environment, David Frise, Chief Executive of BESA, speaks with Mussa Awaleh, Head of Self-certification Schemes and Reform of Building Regulatory Guidance at the Building Safety Regulator. Mussa explains how the schemes, renamed from competent person schemes to self-certification schemes, support the building regulatory system and why their purpose, assessment and oversight are under review. The proposed reforms could affect installers, contractors and scheme operators as expectations around competence, accountability and consumer protection continue to rise. This episode covers: What prompted the change from competent person schemes to self-certification schemesHow installer competence should be assessed, revalidated and maintainedThe responsibility to notify controlled building workThe roles of the Building Safety Regulator, MHCLG and UKASEnforcement action against non-compliant contractorsHow a single construction regulator could reshape industry oversightWith more than 130,000 registered businesses operating across these schemes, reform could have significant consequences for the building services sector. The discussion also considers procurement risk, the Warm Homes Plan and the culture change needed alongside regulatory reform.
Jul 23 · Bonus

Thermal Insulation Can No Longer Mark Its Own Homework

The thermal insulation sector can no longer rely on self-certification to prove that work is safe, effective and properly installed. In this episode of Behind The Built Environment Extra, BESA Chief Executive David Frise speaks with Marion Marsland, Chief Executive of TICA, and Helen Anderson, Deputy Chief Executive of TICA, about proposals for a third-party accredited competence assessment standard for thermal insulation contractors. TICA is proposing an independently accredited standard combining a business review with a technical audit of completed work. It would verify that contractors select the right products, use competent people and follow correct installation methods. The discussion examines why paperwork alone cannot prove competence and how credible assessment can challenge poor performance while helping contractors improve. This episode explores: • Why competence must be demonstrated through evidence and technical assessment • How independent audits could assess thermal insulation workmanship on site • Why trade associations cannot credibly mark their own homework • How poor insulation workmanship creates energy, carbon and safety risks • What the Building Safety Act means for specialist contractor competence • How aligned assessment standards could strengthen the wider supply chain • Whether verified competence can help contractors secure better quality work With energy costs, net-zero targets, and safety placing greater scrutiny on insulation, the discussion considers how credible assessment could raise standards, reduce risk, and establish thermal insulation as a skilled discipline. Learn more about the BESA Competence Assessment Standard and independent audit process. https://www.thebesa.com/besa-membership/competence-assessment-standard-audit Behind The Built Environment is the official podcast of BESA (Building Engineering Services Association). We examine the regulations, challenges and innovations shaping the future of UK construction and building services engineering. https://www.thebesa.com/behind-the-built-environment #ThermalInsulation #ConstructionCompetence #BuildingSafetyAct #EnergyEfficiency #BESA
Jul 2

The Construction Skills Crisis Is A Capacity Problem

Construction’s skills crisis may be less about attracting new people and more about the industry’s inability to absorb, develop and make effective use of them. In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, David Frise, Chief Executive of BESA, speaks with Mark Farmer, founder of CAST Consultancy and author of the landmark Modernise or Die report. Almost ten years after the report was published, Mark reflects on how much construction has genuinely changed and why its traditional labour model continues to struggle. The conversation challenges the assumption that the industry simply has a shortage of people and argues that it has an absorption problem, a competence problem and, ultimately, a capacity problem. This episode covers: • Why does construction have an absorption issue rather than an attraction issue• The three Cs of capability, competency and capacity, and how they interact• Whether the Building Safety Act is driving genuine change or only a thin layer of compliance• Gateway 2 and the case for earlier collaboration between design and construction• Procurement, trust and the debate around cash retentions• Digital competency passporting and raising standards across the supply chain• Why doing the job properly should cost less, not more As the Building Safety Act continues to reshape expectations around competence and accountability, the industry faces a choice between genuine cultural change and box-ticking compliance. This episode explains why capacity, rather than headcount alone, is the measure that matters, and what needs to change across procurement, regulation, and training to close the gap.
Jun 4

Modern Life Runs On An Industry Nobody Notices

Refrigeration and cooling underpin almost everything modern life depends on, yet the sector remains largely invisible to the public, policymakers and even many of the organisations that rely on it. In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, David Frise, Chief Executive of BESA, speaks with Stephen Gill, technical advisor to REFCOM, past president of the Institute of Refrigeration and founder of World Refrigeration Day. Stephen brings decades of experience across engineering, contracting, design consultancy, policy and international advisory work. The conversation explores why a sector central to food security, healthcare, data, communications, and comfort continues to undervalue itself, and what that means as major regulatory and technical changes approach. This episode covers: Why refrigeration and cooling remain hidden in plain sight despite underpinning daily lifeThe case for treating cooling as critical national infrastructureThe HFC phase-down and the risk of divergence between the UK and the EUThe difference between competence and basic compliance, and why both matterHow contractors should advise clients on ageing equipment and asset riskConscious inclusion and making space for neurodiverse talentDyslexia, disclosure and the gap between education and the workplaceAs the UK moves towards a steeper HFC phase-down, contractors and clients face complex decisions on equipment, refrigerants and long-term asset risk. Poor information, weak asset registers and outdated assumptions could leave many exposed to avoidable cost and disruption. The discussion sets out how the sector can move beyond minimum compliance towards genuine competence, trusted advice and greater confidence in the value it brings to society.
May 14

Why Construction Keeps Solving The Wrong Problem

Construction is good at delivering projects. Too often, it starts before asking whether it is solving the right problem. In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, BESA Chief Executive David Frise speaks with Mark Enzer, former Chief Technical Officer at Mott MacDonald and former head of the UK National Digital Twin Programme, about why construction needs to rethink value, data and outcomes. Mark argues that the built environment cannot achieve better outcomes by improving delivery alone. To create greater value, the industry needs to examine how decisions are made, how organisations work together, and how data is used throughout the full life of an asset. Rather than focusing solely on digital tools, this episode examines the thinking that needs to change before technology can make a meaningful difference. It explores why systems thinking, digital twins and AI are only useful when they support clearer outcomes, better decisions and more joined-up ways of working. This episode explores: • What systems thinking means in the built environment• Why cost control is different from value creation• How siloed organisations and disconnected data limit progress• The role of digital twins in making better decisions faster• Why collaboration needs stronger outcome-based incentives• How AI could support systems thinking, and where the risks sit From infrastructure delivery and net zero to procurement, resilience and digital transformation, this is a practical discussion about why the built environment needs to start with outcomes before it starts with delivery. If you work in construction, infrastructure, building services engineering or public sector procurement, this episode offers a direct and practical examination of how the industry can move beyond cost, packages and projects and start solving the right problems.
Apr 2

Why UK Construction Projects Fail Before They Start

Most construction problems are created before a project even reaches site. In this episode of Behind the Built Environment, BESA Chief Executive David Frise speaks with Beth West, founder and director of Navigate Advisory and former Chief Executive of East West Railway Company, about why construction projects fail at the earliest stages. Drawing on experience across HS2, Thames Tideway, Transport for London and East West Rail, Beth explains how poor client capability, weak project definition and misaligned incentives drive cost escalation and inefficiency across the UK built environment. Rather than focusing on delivery alone, this episode examines the decisions that shape outcomes long before construction begins. It challenges the assumption that building is always the answer, explores the risks of uncontrolled design development, and highlights how procurement models, culture and lack of trust continue to limit performance across the industry. This episode explores: Why construction projects fail due to poor early decision makingThe role of the client in defining scope, outcomes and valueWhy building is not always the right solutionHow procurement models limit innovation and productivityThe impact of complexity and uncontrolled design development on costHow trust, culture and data transparency shape project outcomesFrom housing policy and infrastructure delivery to procurement reform and the Building Safety Act, this is a practical discussion about how early decisions shape outcomes across the UK built environment. It also raises fundamental questions about capacity, skills and whether the industry is solving the right problems in the first place. If you work in construction, infrastructure, building services engineering or public sector procurement, this episode is a direct and practical examination of why the industry keeps repeating the same mistakes and what it would take to stop. Behind The Built Environment is the official podcast of BESA (Building Engineering Services Association). We dive into the regulations, challenges, and innovations shaping the future of UK construction and HVAC. https://www.thebesa.com/behind-the-built-environment #UKConstruction #ConstructionIndustry #ProjectManagement #Procurement #BuildingSafetyAct

Behind the Built Environment, a podcast from BESA where we delve into the latest industry news in the building engineering services sector. Join us for insightful discussions and exclusive interviews with leading industry experts, as we explore the trends and innovations shaping the future of the built environment and what impact they will have on you and your business. Find us at https://www.thebesa.com/

Creator

BESA
Years Active

2024 - 2026
Episodes

33
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© BESA
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Behind the Built Environment

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