Looking to the future

The Building Futures Group represents the housing, property, cleaning, parking and facilities management sectors in the UK. It is a trade association, membership body and a training organisation that educates, represents and supports service providers, service users and end users, as well as individuals and employers operating within the five sectors.

Sarah Bentley, chief executive of The Building Futures Group, explains the rationale for the recent merger: "The industry lacked a consolidated, unified voice. The Building Futures Group will coordinate the sector’s voice and provide a platform that has been so sadly missing. We are fully committed to raising the profile of the industry and transforming the sector.”

Bentley will work closely with Steve Davies, managing director of 14forty, who was voted chair of the body’s board of directors following the first board meeting in January. He stated: "I am very pleased that Sarah is our chief executive. I know that she will successfully lead the organisation through this exciting new phase as we take our place as a leader in the sector.”

Davies continued: "We wanted to ensure that our name was representative of the industries we work with. At the heart of the organisation is our commitment to engaging with young people, opening up the industry to new talent and helping them to build exciting careers. The Building Futures Group brand and logo encapsulate this vision”.

The board of The Building Futures Group comprises members from the previous boards of Asset Skills, the CSSA and the FMA. Christine Amyes, executive director of people at New Charter Housing Trust Group, and Malcolm Cannon, chief executive of Lomond Capital, have joined from Asset Skills.

Tony Clarke, managing director of Monthind, and Douglas Cooke, chief executive of Principle Cleaning Services, will accompany them. They were previous members of the CSSA board. John Moriarty, FSI managing director, and Ian West, commercial director at Vinci, are the final board members and were members of the FMA board.

The Building Futures Group’s goal is to support member companies in their pursuit of ever increasing standards of service and value on behalf of their clients and to assist them in improving their trading positions through innovation and thought leadership. 

The organisation provides a platform for members to create new business opportunities and this is achieved with a visible, proactive networking programme. The Building Futures Group will continue to run its popular networking events and will be at the Facilities Show in June (17th to 19th June, ExCeL, London).

Training 

The Building Futures Group has also launched its new training arm, Asset Skills Training, the trusted provider of workforce training and will offer specialist and bespoke training in all areas of FM, cleaning, housing, property, building maintenance and parking. The programmes have been designed by a team with years of experience in the industry working closely alongside large and small businesses and organisations to shape vocational qualifications and training.

Sarah Bentley commented: "We will be offering courses from finance and welfare reform in the housing sector to the MBA in facilities management. There are online, interactive learning programmes in energy efficiency for private rental landlords, customer service for parking wardens, project management for estate managers, sales training for estate agents, and a comprehensive training programme for the cleaning industry.

"Asset Skills Training offers learning programmes at beginner level through to advanced. We hold face-to-face courses where we make use of our interactive display at our London headquarters, or we can offer virtual classrooms online. We can also tailor programmes according to what a particular company needs through an excellent in-house training offer."