Four Key Areas 

The built environment is at a crossroads. The Building Safety Act sets out radical and far reaching changes to the way that we engineer our buildings. The emerging findings from the Hackitt Review and the Grenfell Tower Enquiry have made plain the need for cultural change in our industry. 

Added to this, UK's road to 2050 Net Zero target provides great business opportunities for our sector to respond and contribute. We seek to support the net zero carbon agenda by leveraging our combined expertise.  

In order to deliver meaningful change in all these areas, developing skills and retaining the talent of our sector is an essential underlying and ongoing challenge which must be overcome. 

Actuate UK leads the industry response to the new Building Safety regulations, action plans for net zero carbon goals, campaigns for a better and fair business environment while addressing the skills gap issues. We provide leadership and champion the positive changes needed in industry culture.   

For more details on Actuate UK policy areas, please read below and download our Actuate UK Manifesto.

Business Environment

On the route from design and construction through to the lifetime operation of UK buildings and infrastructure, engineering services provides the pathway to whole-life value.

Success will need industry and stakeholder partnership and robust, innovative and skilled engineering supply chains. Actuate UK aims to work closely with those who make and build - and bring together all those who maintain, upgrade and operate - to develop the business models, choices and behaviours that will deliver success. This will include working together on how the industry procures, and how it shares information, risk and reward, to improve productivity and optimise whole-life value.

Actuate UK is uniquely positioned in the wider industry to bring together construction and facilities and infrastructure management. This business workstream will provide representation and outputs, provide robust research and thought leadership, and enable discussion and debate on the key issues affecting the construction and RMI landscape.

Building Safety

The Building Safety Act (BSA) will mean a fundamental reform of the legal framework for construction and operation of buildings in England. The Act aims to drive radical changes for all in the construction sector in England and across the UK due to the internal market and wish of the devolved administrations to improve building safety in their own jurisdictions. Actuate UK is committed to support the reforms and to contribute wherever appropriate to their development and implementation.

See also ur Building Safety resources here: Building Safety Act

Climate Crisis and Net Zero Target

Climate Crisis and Net Zero Target working group constitutes a forum of support for shaping industry relevant net Zero related policies and achieving their desirable consequences within the built environment.

The group will pursue the objective to achieve coherent policy across the government departments.

Our support will include delivery of information and evidence needed to influence the policy direction, reality cross-check from across industry stakeholder groups, source of expertise and depository of industry’s practical experience and knowledge.

The group will work with all industry stakeholders to actuate change that is needed to advance the net Zero target within the built environment, embracing new construction standards, renovation progress and delivery practice for both.

Our approach will embrace ambitious vision and good practice and we intend to work in a collaborative, consultative and constructive spirit.

Industry Skills

As a sector, we will ultimately fail to deliver any of our policy areas if we do not address our critical skills crisis. This will require a generational change in social and cultural attitudes as well as vigorous action on specific projects and deliverables.

We will act to improve recruitment and retention, champion competency and the professionalism of building service engineers, and ensure there are clear career pathways and opportunity mapping across the sector.

We will also ensure there are robust assessor models to increase provision, simplify the model of engagement with building service engineers, identify specialisms where there are skills crossover and enshrine distance learning as a recognised delivery option.