This article written by our own Associate Partner Jay Woolway for the Golden Thread measures the impact of the Building Safety Act (BSA) on the construction industry and assesses what changes we need to make to move forward.
Baily Garner has proudly secured first place in the Employee Development category at the Building Communities Awards 2025.
As of March 31st, Bradley Webster has assumed the role of Managing Partner at Baily Garner. With nearly two decades of experience within the firm, Bradley’s appointment marks a significant step in our ongoing journey of transformation and growth.
Since our management buyout nine years ago, Baily Garner has grown, diversified, and flourished. We now have over 250 staff working from our offices in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. This growth reflects our ability to adapt to the evolving needs of our clients and the industry.
Stuart Wigley outlines why there are a disproportionate amount of construction-based businesses going into insolvency as well as what we can do to tackle the issue in this RICS Journal entry.
Matthew Allcock has won the prestigious Retrofit Coordinator of the Year Award, hosted by the Retrofit Academy.
Baily Garner has won a place on the South East Consortium (SEC) Asset and Development Framework.
Baily Garner’s market-leading retrofit team has joined forces with Buildeco Offsite Architecture, researchers from Leeds Beckett University and IoT Solutions Group to develop an AI-driven mould-detection and prevention tool.
BG Partner Matt Hornsby has recently been published in Golden Thread Magazine in their latest issue. Matt outlines his knowledge on the Building Safety Act, as well as the major changes the industry has had to make in order to meet the new policies.
This article was originally published by GoldenThread.Net: Issue # 1 – Golden Thread
As 2025 begins, it’s the perfect time to look ahead and share our vision and thoughts for the new year. Continue reading…
Tom Cadman, Partner and Head of our newly opened Manchester Office has been featured in RICS’s Built Environment Journal. This edition ‘Industry must grasp principal designer responsibilities’ cites the Building Safety Act and the crucial role Principal Designers now have on projects needing building control approval.
Ben Nixon, Senior Associate Partner and National Retrofit Lead at Baily Garner has once again been featured on Unlock Net Zero’s website to discuss ‘Embedding Retrofit Within Your Asset Management Strategy’.
Ben Lambon-Ralph, Associate Partner and Retrofit Lead at BG delves into the UK’s Retrofitting puzzle when it comes to housing stock. Retrofitting at such a scale is a beast and if we are to meet the carbon emission targets we have a long way to go.
When striving to maintain and enhance the physical environments of educational institutions, the correct maintenance and implementation of an estates strategy to keep our estates in good working order is a critical success factor and will also support pupil attainment and staff
retention.
As you may have heard the bidding process for the Social Housing Fund Wave 3 is now officially open.
Baily Garner has been going through some transformations as we continue to grow and develop as a business.
Following the King’s Speech on the Labour Government, one major takeaway was the plan to fulfill its manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million more homes.
Baily Garner is thrilled to announce its successful attainment of B Corp status as of 1st May 2024. This remarkable milestone underscores the firm’s dedication to high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and aligns with their core purpose: to positively impact people’s lives.
A team of four Baily Garner apprentices from our Birmingham office got to visit a housing development organised by our Assistant Building Surveyor Caroline Chell, seeing a project come to life in Stafford. Original article by Bellway.
Following Turner & Townsend’s webinars last week on behalf of DESNZ, our Retrofit team have provided a guidance summary going over everything you need to know about SHDF Wave 3.
After the release of Government guidance for SHDF Wave 3 there is now £1.25bn available from April 2025 to September 2028 to be used on social housing to make homes greener and more energy efficient. There’s been a lot of discussion as to how the new wave of funding will affect landlords, contractors, residents and many other stakeholders.
The new Council Homes Acquisition Programme (CHAP) is a government initiative aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing for low-income families.
Baily Garner proudly announces the formation of BG Architects, marking a significant milestone in the company’s evolution. With a strategic consolidation of its Birmingham and London offices on May 1, 2023, BG Architects emerges as a dynamic force poised to reshape the architectural landscape.
The UK construction industry has been facing significant challenges, with reports of increased insolvencies affecting organisations both big and small. Contributing factors such as rising material costs, inflation, borrowing costs, and fixed-price contracts all add to the financial pressures.
Is Planning Reform a recipe for disaster or a silver bullet for change?
We take immense pride in unveiling our latest initiative—the Damp and Mould Growth Toolkit. Crafted with a meticulous forensic approach, this toolkit is designed to bolster the sector by providing a comprehensive framework for identifying and resolving damp and mould-related issues.
In less than three months we will be attending SEC 2023 on 1 November. We are happy to say that we are also event partners for the event.
We are thrilled to finally announce that we are a Session Partner at The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF), set to take place between 21st – 23rd May 2024 in Leeds.
Baily Garner has been named as a supplier on the NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) Healthcare Planning, Construction Consultancy and Ancillary Services framework agreement. Within this framework agreement we will be able to provide our services to a number of different kinds of projects in the health sector.
We regularly publish thought leadership pieces on a variety of topics. Our most recent piece ‘UK has some way to go despite retrofit progress’ authored by Matt Allcock, was published in the RICS Built Environment Journal, looked at the current state of Housing Retrofit in the UK.
The shortlist for the Unlock Net Zero live awards has been released and we are thrilled to announce that we are finalists for two categories.
Our Clement Close scheme has been shortlisted in the Residential Category in the Brent Design Awards 2023.
Baily Garner have already been appointed by numerous clients to deliver PAS2035, contract administration and strategic consultancy roles on SHDF demonstrator, Wave 1 and Wave 2.1 preparatory programmes of work.
Baily Garner are delighted to have achieved RIBA Chartered Practice status for our Architecture team.
Our final interview is with Rhiannon, who shows the academic route is only one part of learning about the industry.
Continue reading…
The second of our interviews is with Reece Simpson. He takes us through his choice to take a different route into construction.
Continue reading…
We spoke to Hugo, an apprentice building surveyor at Baily Garner to see what his day to day life an an apprentice is like. Continue reading…
Partner Neil Hope has created a thought piece taking a look back at events over the past 12 months.
Congratulations to our own Matthew Allcock who has joined the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA).
In the last of our series of articles we hear from Associate Partner Will Gregory. Continue reading…
Air tightness is a key consideration when retrofitting a property. Listen to Ben on how we can use it to
Ben Lambon-Ralph, Chartered Building Surveyor and qualified Project Manager, discusses the contract options available, the importance of the contract, and creating a retrofit procurement strategy. Continue reading…
It’s estimated that some 1.5 million houses were built using non-traditional (non-trad) materials and methods of construction between the 1940s and the 1970s. Matthew Allcock discusses the key considerations of retrofitting these types of housing projects.
Planning and preparation are key to any retrofit programme, this article is the first in a series discussing a range of different topics ranging from retrofit to air tightness testing.
Come and see us at HOMES UK this November. Not only are we sponsoring the event, but we also have guest speakers at two sessions.
Two members of our team are part of the Housing Forum’s Network for prospective future leaders.
Congratulations to Joe Marshall who has been shortlisted for the RICS Matrics Young Surveyor of the Year.
We have been nominated for a Building Award in the category of Consultant of the Year (more than 100 staff) for the second year in a row.
This article originally published by the RICS Built Environment Journal, details everything you need to know about PAS 9980.
Richard Baker took part in CHIC’s round table discussion, ‘The Disrepair Challenge’. Continue reading…
Following the update to our Future Homes Standard toolkit last week, we have now released an updated version of our toolkit for retrofitting existing homes.
Two years on from our initial fire safety bulletin, Andrew Little has written an update on the latest developments.
Our practical toolkit outlines what needs to be considered to achieve net zero in new build homes.
The Low Carbon Skills fund is a grant that can be used by public sector organisations and multi-academy trusts to procure consultants to undertake surveys, feasibility studies, modelling exercises and produce a Heat Decarbonisation Plan.
We are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted at the Insider Midlands Residential Property Awards for 2022.
The last two years or so have been hard for many sectors. The impact of Brexit, Covid and now the war in Ukraine has led to considerable volatility in the construction market.
From Monday 13 to Friday 17 June, we will be holding our very first Sustainability Week. Continue reading…
We are pleased to announce the promotion of two new associates joining the partnership. From 1 May 2022, Anil Chandla and Will Gregory will be Associate Partners.
We have been appointed to the Essex Procurement Hub (EPH) construction consultancy framework.
We couldn’t get everyone together for a Baily Garner Christmas celebration this year, but we were able to turn a negative into a positive by supporting two worthy causes.
What a great December it’s been for APC results!
Following on from our practical toolkit for achieving net zero in new build homes (released in August this year), we are now releasing our second toolkit, this time tackling the issue of retrofitting existing homes. Continue reading…
We were excited to have two of our projects shortlisted at the Inside Housing Development Awards 2021, and now we’re delighted to announce that one of them has won!
After a virtual event last year, HOMES UK is returning to ExCel London from Tuesday 23 to Wednesday 24 November 2021. ,
Not only are we sponsoring the event, but we are also hosts and guest speakers at four sessions.
Tuesday 23 November, Midday – 12.45pm
Partner Mustab Ahmed joins the panel discussing The Future Homes Standard: fit for the future now.
Tuesday 23 November, 2.45pm – 3.30pm
Strategic asset management and customers – unlocking the net zero retrofit challenge is the topic of conversation for Partners Ben Nixon, Laura O’Donovan and John Milner.
Tuesday 23 November, 3.40pm – 4.25pm
Carbon versus safety and the approach to fire remediation works – Anil Chandla, Programme Manager joins the conversation.
Wednesday 24 November, 1.50pm – 2.35pm
Graeme Sargood will discover What can housing learn from other sectors?
Join us at this sector-leading event by registering for your *free ticket.
* Tickets are free for housing associations, local authorities, public sector, housebuilders, master developers, funders, architects, planners and build to rent landlords, student accommodation, retirement living and extra-care providers. Fees will apply to other commercial organisations.
We’re delighted to be exhibiting and presenting at this year’s South East Consortium (SEC) annual conference on Wednesday 10 November 2021.
Led by the Mayor’s Fund for London, Firm Foundations is a brand-new campaign which aims to create a stronger and more inclusive industry where young Londoners from all backgrounds feel they belong and can flourish.
We’ve been appointed to the Fusion21 national Consultants Framework following a highly competitive tender process – worth up to £120m over a four-year period. Continue reading…
Two important publications to reinforce the industry’s drive towards raising quality standards and awareness
Our Tufnell Park Primary School project has been nominated for ‘Project of the Year – Schools‘ at the Education Estates Awards. Baily Garner provided Employer’s Agent, Cost Consultancy and Quality Control services for this scheme.
We have been nominated for a Building Award in the category of Consultant of the Year (more than 100 staff).
We have produced a new practical toolkit for achieving net zero in new build homes.
We will be exhibiting at the Education Estates conference at Manchester Central from 12-13th October 2021.
We have successfully retained our Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation as of 27 July 2021.
Two of our partners will be speaking at this year’s Housing 2021 conference in Manchester.
We’re delighted to have been awarded the Skills & Training Scheme of the Year award at the Insider’s Midlands Residential Property Awards, which took place on Thursday 22 July 2021 at The Eastside Rooms, Birmingham.
On Thursday 15th July, Partner John Milner took part in a panel discussion as part of the Unlock Net Zero webinar series.
On Wednesday 23rd June, Baily Garner hosted a panel discussion as part of the Built Environment Networking Blue Light Estates Development conference.
Baily Garner is pleased to become a Registered Signatory of the Building a Safer Future Charter.
Continue reading…
Two members of our team are part of the Housing Forum’s Network for prospective future leaders.
Partners Bradley Webster and Neil Hope will be providing expert advice and leading three sessions in the ‘Get Ready for Work’ webinar led by our client Network Homes. This one day webinar will consist of various sessions to help in every aspect of job hunting, including everything from how to make an eye-catching CV to how to create a LinkedIn profile.
The stable refurbishment project at Great Scotland Yard that we completed for the Metropolitan Police Service has been Highly Commended at the National Police Estates Group (NPEG) awards for construction projects over £1 million.
We are sponsoring the Built Environment Networking Blue Light Estates Development Conference which will be taking place on 23 June 2021. Partner Rob Ireland will be chairing Session Three: Blue Light Estates – Development Plans at 11:30 am, with a focus on quality in design and construction.
Partner John Milner has written an article for the latest edition of the RICS Built Environment Journal on the end of gas heating in our homes. The article discusses the context, regulations, software, the role of heat pumps, whether hydrogen can play a role and looks at retrofit strategies and standards.
Friday 21st May was the Best Companies Live event which saw an awards ceremony for businesses across the UK who are exceptional to work for.
As this week is Mental Health Awareness Week, it is a good time to look back on some of the things we’ve been doing over the last year to support the mental health of our staff.
Promoting and protecting wellbeing in the workplace is important to Baily Garner and is aligned to our key objective of being a great place to work. We recognise that mental health is a vital part of this and, in a year that has been difficult for a lot of people, we have put a focus on the mental health of our staff.
“How are you?” has become the first question at the top of the agenda in all weekly team meetings and in individual one-to-one reviews. Our people managers have been taught to monitor individuals’ wellbeing and be vigilant for signs of demotivation or feelings of isolation.
In November 2020, 23 of our people managers attended a Mental Health Awareness course provided by Mental Health First Aid England (MHFAE), which included how to be more aware of mental ill health in others, how to talk to others about mental health, considering our own mental health and actions we can take to ensure good mental health.
Then in January 2021, we launched our Mental Health First Aiders across the practice. 14 of our team have been trained as Mental Health First Aiders to act as someone to talk to for anyone experiencing any mental health issues and to provide signposting to other resources where needed.
Our employees all also have access to an Employee Assistance Programme through our Healthcare Cash Plan benefit provided to all permanent employees, which provides further signposting and professional help if required.
We provide ways for our staff to support their own mental wellbeing through social activities and our ‘Social, Health and Wellbeing’ Microsoft Teams channel. This week we are using this to launch our first annual photography competition, in memory of one of our former partners, to raise money for charity. The theme of the competition will be nature, to tie in with the Mental Health Awareness Week theme and it’s open for all of our staff and their families to take part.
We are also giving each of our team a gift of a ‘Little Ray of Sunshine’ in the form of a sunflower growing kit. A little bit of nature to take home and ‘grow their own’.
We are pleased to announce five promotions within the partnership, effective from the 1st May 2021.
We are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted at the Insider Midlands Residential Property Awards for 2021.
Two of our projects have been shortlisted at the Inside Housing Development Awards 2021.
A pilot £50 million Government project to improve the energy efficiency of social housing has awarded £4.5m funding to a bid Baily Garner has been working on with a number of partner organisations.
We have agreed to sponsor the Housing Forum’s Councils Network, which is dedicated to building development expertise in councils.
We are very proud to announce that we have achieved 2 star accreditation by Best Companies for ‘Outstanding’ employee engagement.
We are pleased to launch a new personal development programme at Baily Garner, which aims to support and promote women in the construction workplace.
We are pleased to be founding partners of a new knowledge portal that is designed to inform, train and connect people and companies to move into a future of Net Zero emissions.
Sarb Atwal is a Trainee Architectural Assistant in our Birmingham office, who is also studying for a BA Architecture at Birmingham City University. Here is what he had to say about his architecture apprenticeship at Baily Garner. Continue reading…
Continuing to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, we interviewed Rory Gibson, an Apprentice Building Surveyor in our Eltham Head office, about his time at Baily Garner so far.
The third of our interviews with our current apprentices this week is with Jai Ghai. Jai is a Trainee Building Surveyor in our Birmingham office and is working towards a Building Surveying degree at Birmingham City University. Here’s how he summed up his apprenticeship at Baily Garner.
Ben Brewster is an Apprentice Project Manager in our Eltham office and is currently studying for a degree in Quantity Surveying at London Southbank University. This is what he had to say about doing an apprenticeship at Baily Garner.
To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2021, we’re introducing some of our current apprentices. Dylan Sharma is a Trainee Quantity Surveyor in our Birmingham office and is studying for a BSc Quantity Surveying at Birmingham City University. We asked him all about his apprenticeship at Baily Garner, and this is what he said.
Join us for our first webinar of 2021 on Wednesday 3rd March at 10am.
We are very happy to announce that we have been successfully appointed to the SEC framework which runs for the next four years.
Two of our partners, Andrew Little and Rob Ireland, have joined sector research groups set up by South East Consortium (SEC).
In March 2020, along with the rest of the world, the UK Construction industry was disrupted in a way that none of us had experienced before by the coronavirus pandemic. At Baily Garner, like most other businesses, we had to react quickly to enable our operations to continue, whilst keeping our employees safe as we went into a nationwide lockdown.
We know that 2020 has been a difficult year for many people, so this year we will be donating the £15,000 that we would usually spend on a Christmas drinks event to charity.
As part of our involvement with this year’s HOMES UK conference, Partners John Milner and Ian Maun spoke at a session about the proposed future ban on gas boilers in new homes and alternative heating sources that can be considered as a replacement.
We are in an environment where the Government are making millions of pounds available for crucial remediation and compliance work, and there is a need to build more and higher quality housing, which will ultimately be governed by the need for new skills and accreditation. Alongside this, the incremental reductions in PI cover available and the increases in premiums and excesses applied, run the very high risk of restricted capacity in the market, greater risk aversion, or indeed burying one’s head in the sand and less appetite to deliver the work, all potentially leading to the perfect storm.
Managing Partner, Andy Tookey, hosted a round table session at the 2020 HOMES UK virtual event, to discuss the challenges, potential solutions and their implications for the construction market. Below he summarises the key points from the discussion with our panel of speakers from across the industry representing views from the insurance sector, consultants, lawyers, contractors and clients.
The tendency to believe that BIM is the sole preserve of new-build construction overlooks the advantages it can have for the management and refurbishment of existing buildings. Partner, Rob Ireland, wrote the following article for the RICS Built Environment Journal to discuss.
On Thursday 26th November 2020, an amendment was made to Approved Document B (Fire Safety) (ADB) such that the height threshold for provision of sprinklers is no longer triggered at 30 metres, but now at 11 metres for residential buildings, extensions, change of use or material alteration and mixed use properties under Regulation 3 (Building Works). Provisions of additional way finding shall also be required in properties above 11m in height.
Congratulations to Karen Crowley (PA to Managing Partner, Andy Tookey) who has been shortlisted for the PA Life Club Member of the year award.
We are pleased to once again be involved with the HOMES 2020 conference as registration sponsors.
Following the announcement of a second lockdown in England starting from Thursday 5th November, we will be ensuring we work within the current Government guidelines.
We are delighted to announce the promotion of Ben Nixon to Associate Partner on 1st November 2020.
Ben joined Baily Garner in February 2019 and since then he has become a chartered building surveyor (MRICS) and chartered construction manager (MCIOB).
We are pleased to announce that Andrew Little has been promoted to Equity Partner. Continue reading…
We are proud to announce that Baily Garner has been appointed to the Procure Partnerships Framework Professional Services Agreement, which runs from 2020-2024.
Through this framework we can support our public sector clients in five different geographical regions and the framework allows clients to make direct appointments or to run a competitive tender. Continue reading…
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy, businesses are changing the way they operate with increased home working. This has caused both owners and tenants to reconsider the future of their office buildings. For our view on the incoming rise of office to residential developments read our latest bulletin
Northdown Gardens won in the category of Best Individual New Home at the LABC London Awards. Congratulations to the entire project team for all of their hard work. BG provided Professional Services for this project. If you would like to read more about the project and the awards click here.
Fire safety on construction projects has probably never had a greater profile so our latest Fire Safety Bulletin, showing the impacts of recent legislation on the construction industry as well as what BG are doing to help drive change in terms of fire safety is an important read. in the bulletin we show projects and share information on this changing landscape.
After the successful re-opening of our Head office in Eltham earlier in the summer, a small number of staff have now also returned to office working in our Birmingham office, as of Monday 27th July.
Both offices are now operating successfully within the safety parameters required by government guidelines, but with a reduced level of occupancy.
Please note that at this time all offices remain closed to visitors.
Well done to our three new Chartered Building Surveyors from our Head Office. Jack Plummer, Max Skeet and George Gardner who all passed their APC exams and as of last week are Chartered.
Baily Garner are proud to be members of the Consultant Thought Leadership Group, a group of Chartered Surveyors, Employers Agents and Project Managers that have got together to help drive quality and change within the construction industry through collaboration and knowledge sharing. The attached open letter to all our clients discusses the impact of Covid-19 on our industry and discusses some potential ways through