The Building Podcast with Mark Wakeford

Mark Wakeford

Mark Wakeford is a Director of the National Federation of Builders, Strategy Director of the Global Solar Council and Chair of the West Midlands Solar Taskforce.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide 'CPD on the go'.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry! https://www.linked.com/in/markwakeford/ 

  1. 3d ago

    Construction Skills - Government is trying to help - Get involved to secure your legacy and the future of your business

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Construction skills remain a challenge for the industry.  Construction is recruiting fewer new recruits, and our average age of tradesperson continues to increase.  Where and how is our sector going to find the people with the skills to provide a service?  The Government's solution for England is the ten Construction Technical Excellence Colleges scattered throughout the country.  These FE Colleges have already proven that they are exceptional and can act as regional training hubs for the industry.  There is some money to facilitate better courses with good lecturers and money to support SME engagement.  The industry is characterised with many small businesses, through which much of the trade training is delivered.  These jobs are relatively immune to Artificial Intelligence, yet the high cost of recruitment and employment is deterring many from making this investment in their workforce. Sam Egan is the Group Director of CTECs at the Bedford College Group which has the responsibility for steering the ten CTECs.  She has the responsibility to make this investment work and to help solve the developing construction skills crisis.  Listen to this podcast to hear what is planned and why this time this initiative has the authority and breadth to make a difference. Listen to hear how and why construction employers of all sizes should get involved.  Listen to hear the role of trade federations in assimilating knowledge and expectations from their members and distilling it in support of assessing curricula and demand.  Listen to hear about the support on offer for small businesses to employ apprentices and improve their competencies. Sam Egan | LinkedIn Find a CTEC - The National CTEC Hub Bedford College Group | The Bedford College Group | Further and Higher Education

    46 min
  2. Decentralised and Democratised Energy - How to get your Community Energy scheme off the ground and onto site

    4d ago

    Decentralised and Democratised Energy - How to get your Community Energy scheme off the ground and onto site

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Community Energy is heralded as the best way to mobilise communities to develop and invest in their own energy schemes, the easiest being wind or solar.  A project starts with the germ of an idea and a group of keen and curious individuals who want to form the nucleus of a diverse team to bring cheaper and secure energy to a community.  Great British Energy is here to support these schemes with an aspiration that every person in the UK will have access to a community scheme by the end of the decade.  They have a £1Bn budget to support 1000 schemes.  You can see the attraction to generating energy in the location that it is going to be used to reduce transmission costs and to increase the security of supply in times of heightened security risks. Kirsty Shanahan set up Buckingham Community Energy with colleagues some six years ago.  She is also a Project Manager for Community Energy Pathways, an organisation that supports community groups to become successful community energy companies.  She has the knowledge and experience to know what, when and how to make a success of community energy! Listen to this podcast to find out how the process works and how nearly anyone can create a community energy scheme with the right people, opportunity and support.  Listen to hear about the skills needed and the importance of good communication skills and governance within the organisation.  Find out about the wide range of support available and the opportunity to be one of the successful schemes that will help the UK achieve its net zero ambitions. Community Energy schemes can be sophisticated energy providers that can fund battery, solar and wind.  Other models can exist for the imaginative, as Community Energy tends to provide a solution where the commercial market cannot.  Community Energy's super-powers include patient and kind capital, deploying locally raised funds within their own communities.  It is also possible to incorporate training for large schemes that can mobilise the local community further, providing careers as part of the "Just Transition". Kirsty Shanahan | LinkedIn Community Energy England - The voice of the community energy sector Community Energy Pathways working to accelerate the growth of the community energy sector - Community Energy Pathways

    55 min
  3. GB Energy – Driving an energy revolution through community energy schemes

    Jun 25

    GB Energy – Driving an energy revolution through community energy schemes

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome GB Energy has been created to drive the renewable energy revolution through out the United Kingdom.  One element of this is the near £1Bn fund for 1,000 community energy schemes to be delivered nationally by 2030.  This fund will generate jobs, investment opportunities and cheaper and more resilient energy generation, where local communities can own and benefit from the asset.   Done at scale and at pace, this initiative has the capability of driving changes in consumer behaviour and of de-risking our national grid. Fraser Stewart, Head of Local Energy Strategy for GB Energy, talks about the new institution and the ideas behind community energy schemes.  Listen to this podcast to find out how it works, how to get engaged with the programme and what the constraints are likely to be.  Listen to hear how the programme is being developed and where the opportunities for community groups, solar businesses and other stakeholders might lie.  Listen to hear the focus on skilled UK labour and the ideal of using UK produced materials and products. There is huge opportunity in this programme, as GB Energy seeks to make a return on their investment.  Listen to hear how ambition to service over 1000 separate schemes will drive a demand for skilled people and how GB Energy will unlock these schemes. Fraser Stewart | LinkedIn Great British Energy cp30 action plan - Search

    45 min

  4. Jun 24

    Construction Robots – How to be part of a £300Bn industry by 2030 – Fact or Fiction?

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Government is planning for a £200 - £300Bn industry by 2030 and Agnes Wamagui is in the epicentre of this aspiration.  Agnes is the Knowledge Transfer Manager for Robots within Innovate UK, the Government’s agency for funding and promoting the best of British innovation.  She sits at the confluence of Government policy, university research, investors and industry, both developers and users.  Her role is to promote collaboration and trust in the sector to fund, train and introduce at pace and at scale the concept and use of robots across industry.  Agnes recognised the structural issues that exist within our construction industry, but is adamant that the opportunity is huge, particularly for the early adopters who are keen to improve quality, speed and productivity. Listen to this podcast to find out what Innovate UK is doing to promote robots within the UK and how to get involved.  Find out the challenges that exist around system change to make the most of adopting this technology and the skills that we will all need to maximise the benefit of the technology.  Agnes believes that the hardware exists already and that the software is catching up rapidly.  She is also adamant that there is no excuse why the ideas and research that our top class universities are generating should not stay within the UK to benefit the UK, rather than being bought by foreigners and then returned at a price once honed and optimised. Agnes Wamagui | LinkedIn UKRI – UK Research and Innovation Robots for a safer world – UKRI

    59 min

  5. Jun 19

    Protecting Your Greatest Asset: Why Safeguarding matters to us all

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Companies often state that people are their biggest and most important asset.  The UK construction industry has the highest suicide rate of any sector, so we might argue that we are not looking after this asset at all well. Couple this with our high percentage of neuro- diverse employees and the latest statute, the Employments Rights Act 2025, employers must raise the priority of safeguarding within their organisations, regardless of size. Xara Church is the Global Safeguarding Lead for the Halo Trust, a charity that works worldwide to reduce the impact of war on local communities.   She has worked for Oxfam and a large UK construction consultant.  She understands the importance of proper safeguards and reporting structures in supporting staff, making organisations more effective and protecting reputation.  Her appreciation of 1990s pop group Bananarama “It ain’t what you do, but the way that you do it” informs her approach to driving cultural change through out the Halo Trust. Listen to Xara on the relevance of safeguarding to all organisations.  Hear how important it is to support both the depth of safeguarding within an organisation, but also the breadth, looking at supply chain and external stakeholders, if you want to get the benefits and manage the institutional risks.  Xara explores how to treat survivors / victims and to put in place reporting structures and their management for effective controls.  Xara also talks to the values of the Halo Trust and how they are strictly applied across the world in different cultures and different settings. Listen to this podcast to understand the best-in-class practices around safeguarding and the benefits of getting this right.  Also listen if you want to support the Halo Trust and would like to know how! Xara Church | LinkedIn Clearing mines, helping countries recover | The HALO Trust

    45 min
  6. Solar for the Support of Civil Society

    Jun 18

    Solar for the Support of Civil Society

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Solar, supported by battery storage, is the technology of choice to keep civil society functioning close to the front line in war torn Ukraine.  Its decentralised nature makes targeting by the enemy far more difficult, and it allows users to manage when the power is used, keeping essential services in hospitals and schools working.  Without this energy, civil society would be in even greater risk of collapse as hospitals and schools could not function. Kirsty Berry is one of the UK ambassadors for charity Repower Ukraine, promoting the life saving work that energy security provides and seeking support. Listen to hear the lessons for other countries.  The UK has published its National Security Strategy, noting that renewable energy provides resilient energy security, moving away from centralised generation. Listen to the podcast to hear how ex-servicemen and women train to install solar and then maintain it.  Listen to hear about the focus on quality, needed to ensure a reliable and efficient supply of energy.  Listen to hear how to support this charity, with materials, finance or time. Kirsty Berry | LinkedIn RePower Ukraine Foundation: Empowering with Renewable Energy National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World - GOV.UK

    30 min

  7. Jun 8

    One solution to the skills crisis - Tackle it early in schools with real construction examples

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The UK construction market needs an additional 50,000 people to join the sector every year till 2030 if it is to provide the services to which it is contracted or will be contracted.  Many of these people will be expected to join from school, colleges and universities, yet the industry has a communication problem and is competing with other, better equipped and better marketed sectors.  Unless we can encourage the right new recruits into our sector then we will fail our customers and fail to benefit fully from the opportunities in front of us. Kathryn Lennon-Johnson trained as a behavioural psychologist and set up Built Environment Skills in Schools ten years ago to support the transition of students into the construction sector.  She has been working with schools, colleges, businesses and government authorities to enhance the experience of students in construction with the purpose of empowering the next generation of stewards of our built environment.  This is a hugely important role as our sector is often mis-represented and poorly understood.  When coupled with the fragmentation of the industry with companies operating in silos, enthusing and informing the next generation can be a real challenge. Listen to this podcast to hear how the void between education and employment can be crossed.  Hear how even small employers can make an awesome difference to student outcomes and how this can be used to inform their reputation and their procurement within the sector.  Listen how to ensure that the work that you do carry out is not lost and can have a lasting impact.  Kathryn brings here experience of working with over 4,000 schools to demonstrate that our marketing skills can inform our approach and that, like our customers, a transaction approach does not help deliver long term change. Kathryn Lennon-Johnson | LinkedIn Built Environment Skills in Schools + BUILD Marketing: Overview | LinkedIn SEED Schools Engagement and Early Discovery: Overview | LinkedIn Design Engineer Construct (DEC) Slenky Careers & Enterprise Company

    51 min
  8. Mark talks to Dean Hill - The Big Solar Co-op Ltd

    May 28

    Mark talks to Dean Hill - The Big Solar Co-op Ltd

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The solar sector has to deliver competent solar arrays as scale and at pace if it is to achieve the goal of 55GW by 2030 and support the worldwide target of 8TW of generating capacity.  In the UK, Government has stated that it wants everyone to have access to a community energy scheme by 2030, which is a huge target that would support the de-carbonisation of the grid and the democratisation of energy supply.  Community energy schemes are therefore likely to be a major contributor to the overall targets. Dean Hill is the National Client Lead for The Big Solar Coop, a cooperative developer of solar that delivers community solar schemes nationally.   Big Solar’s community is their investors who are keen to provide solar in a professional and competent manner, to businesses who are looking for external funding.  Dean talks through these schemes and also the more challenging smaller schemes that may be assembled by local communities. Listen to this podcast to understand how a community scheme is assembled and how it can generate trust within a community that may know very little about the technical aspects of solar.  Listen to hear how the process works and how to get involved in your own community solar project.  Listen to hear Dean talk about how the West Midlands Solar Taskforce can support those with an interest in solar, through the broad community of energy professionals that exist up and down the country and who are keen to see renewable energy generation. Dean G. Hill | LinkedIn Big Solar Co-op - community solar

    52 min
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About

Mark Wakeford is a Director of the National Federation of Builders, Strategy Director of the Global Solar Council and Chair of the West Midlands Solar Taskforce.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide 'CPD on the go'.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry! https://www.linked.com/in/markwakeford/ 

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