CIOB members and our partners in the wider construction community will know by now we have three headline themes informing our work: the promotion of quality and safety, environmental sustainability and tackling the skills gap.

We are making progress in each of those areas but they are big challenges and we have to tackle them collaboratively, across the sector and across the UK.

As ever, our members and our team based in Scotland made important contributions to our work – but I only have room for a couple of highlights here. 

The CIOB in Scotland team delivered many successful member-facing events, like the CIOB in Scotland Awards and CPD sessions, and the very well-received ‘Grenfell’s Legacy: Reflect and Progress Conference’.

Our policy and public affairs officer for CIOB in Scotland, Jocelyne Fleming, was at the forefront of bringing policymakers and members together to examine some of our industry’s big challenges.

After the many changes in Holyrood earlier this year, work to engage parliamentarians continued. Following last year’s ‘retrofit roundtable’, hosted by CIOB and sponsored by Gordon MacDonald MSP, we continued with the collaboration across the sector to contribute to a report, published in May, urging the Scottish Government to take action to tackle the country’s draughty homes.

As one strand of work in tackling climate change, we believe that retrofitting is essential in reducing heat loss, minimising energy consumption and shrinking bills for residents. The reduction in energy use should also lead to lower carbon emissions from homes across the country.

As Jocelyne wrote in Scottish Construction Now in September, there is room for optimism, with a Members’ Debate on Retrofitting and Tenement Maintenance, also sponsored by Graham Simpson, which covered the ‘Meeting Scotland’s Retrofit Challenge’ report.

Jocelyne noted that she “was encouraged by the urgency recognised by MSPs from across the chamber on the need to take action to remove the myriad barriers to retrofit, repair and maintenance works in Scotland.”

Work will continue to advocate for retrofit projects to help meet net zero and fuel poverty targets - and also help to address the housing emergency.

Continuing the theme of supporting moves to net zero, our Head of Environmental Sustainability, Amanda Williams, visited Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) near Glasgow earlier this year.

BE-ST is Scotland’s National Innovation Centre for construction and the built environment, working to accelerate the built environment’s transition to zero carbon emissions.

They’re doing great work, in a very collaborative way, on innovation and support for research and development to test more sustainable materials and construction methods. They’re also helping to close the skills gap by providing training on “low carbon learning” and retrofit.

I can’t finish a piece about the great work going on across the industry in Scotland without mentioning Dr Scott McGibbon FCIOB. The inaugural Paul Dockerill award, named for CIOB Trustee Paul Dockerill FCIOB who passed away two years ago, went to a project aiming to tackle one of the biggest health & safety risks to construction workers - silicosis. Scott wrote in SCN a few weeks ago on the motivation behind the project.

Congratulations to Scott for submitting a successful proposal for this important work to help combat the danger from silica dust.

As ever, a whistle-stop tour of just some of CIOB’s highlights doesn’t do them justice but I do want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our members in Scotland and to all those in the industry who work with the CIOB Scotland team to drive the creation of better built environment.