Finding that significant opportunities and easy wins are being missed by office investors, owners, and occupiers who do not have clear retrofit strategies in place, UKGBC’s report shows that deep retrofit is usually needed to achieve a 60-65 percent cut in operational energy use, shift building systems away from fossil fuels, and meet best practice 2030-2035 energy performance targets for offices.

However, the Council’s findings also show that significant reductions in operational energy use are also possible through both optimisation (26 percent) and light retrofit (15 percent), which also represents the most cost effective and carbon efficient retrofit measures. With building optimisation, the most cost effective way of significantly reducing operational energy use and associated carbon emissions, taking intermediate steps can mean deep retrofits can be undertaken more quickly with less extensive works, further down the line if required. Currently, 77 percent of UK office stock has an EPC rating below B and is anticipated to be unlettable by 2030.

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Asbestos exposure in Great Britain is still the single greatest cause of work-related deaths due to exposures decades ago. Businesses and organisations responsible for premises built before the turn of the century, and especially those between 1950 and 1980, must carry out the necessary checks and understand their legal responsibilities.

HSE will check how asbestos is managed when visiting a range of buildings to ensure the right arrangements are in place. Updated information including an asbestos management plan template, and explanatory videos can be found on HSE’s website.

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The poll also revealed that from the remaining businesses, almost half are in the early stages of adopting digital-forward technologies in their building maintenance strategies whilst the remaining 40 percent are ‘moderately’ embracing the changes. A recent analysis of data from the ONS Business Insights report to determine the UK’s awareness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) found that 84 percent of UK businesses are not currently adopting AI technologies.

Read Evotech’s blog ‘How the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionising building energy efficiency’ for more information on smart building maintenance solutions.

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Since the Prime Minister ruled out legislation to force landlords to upgrade the EPC rating of their properties in September 2023 there has been some confusion about whether non-domestic properties were included. Under current rules, non-domestic property in England and Wales must achieve EPC E (unless exempt), and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DENZ) propose that they must meet EPC B by 2030.

A consultation which ran in 2021 gathered views and evidence on the implementation and enforcement of the 2030 target, however, the UK Government response is yet to be published. DENZ originally intended to introduce legislation in 2025 to allow sufficient lead time for landlords to prepare, but this is no longer possible.

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According to the latest figures available, as of December 31st, 2023, a total of 3,839 buildings were identified with unsafe cladding with only 797 (21%) of this number having completed remediation works, leaving a substantial 2,231 properties (58%) with no remediation works started. The statistics highlight the urgent need for comprehensive and swift action to address the backlog of buildings with unsafe cladding, to ensure the safety of residents and mitigate the risk of fire incidents.

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