The Brexit clock is ticking

by John Newcomb, BMF CEO
16 October 2017

More than a year since the country voted to leave the EU, the reality of how our business lives will be affected remains unclear. At BMF Members’ Day in September, against the background of a ticking countdown clock, our focus was firmly on Building Beyond Brexit as our speakers, including Alok Sharma, the Housing & Planning Minister, gave us their insights into possible outcomes, the challenges that may arise and the opportunities they may bring.

There is still clearly a lot of uncertainty but one thing is sure, and that’s the BMF’s intention to play a lead role in any changes to legislation, building regulations or customs and tariffs that may affect our Members. Over the last 15 months our Policy and Public affairs work has risen up the Agenda. We are regularly engaging with Government departments and ministers - this is the first time, for example, that we have had a housing minister speak at Member’s Day.

Since the General Election in June, and in preparation for the Autumn political party conference season, we have updated our Policy outlook document, which outlines our key asks from Government. For the second year running the BMF, this year in partnership with the NFRC, was a major sponsor of the Skills Summit held at the Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth. We also attended the Labour Party Conference in Brighton the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

We are fortunate that the BMF membership is at its highest for over 20 years. The fact that we are the fourth largest construction trade body representing over 80% of the merchant sector means that our voice is not only being heard, our views are now actively sought.

Core Values

Whatever the challenges of Brexit, the BMF is committed to building a business that will continue to be relevant to members and in great shape to serve and support our industry.

With four new non-executive directors appointed this year, we are in the process of building a new Board to lead the Federation through the changes facing our industry. Their first task is to formally review our strategy and produce a new strategic roadmap for the next five years. The roadmap will be delivered next summer but we have already started on the journey by signing off the three Core Values that will underpin the BMF’s vision for the future. Our Core Values confirm that we are:

Passionate about adding value to our Members’ businesses
Member focused and Member engaged
Personal, approachable and trustworthy

Working together

We understand the value of working together and the strength that this gives us. Over the past year we have created 15 Regional Centres of Excellence throughout the UK. This has been made possible by merchant and supplier members making their premises available for our use for regional meetings, training, and local press and public affairs events. We are also indebted to our 11 Regional Chairs, busy merchants who give up their very valuable time to head each the BMF’s Regions, as well as the Sector Chairs who run each of our product category and job specific forums. Without their support, these meetings simply couldn’t happen.

The trend towards localisation will gain prominence in our future Policy and Public affairs strategy, as the UK moves towards more devolved powers, with the appointment of Policy and Public affairs consultants in Scotland and Northern Ireland during the next 12 months. This follows the successful appointment of our Welsh public affairs consultant last summer.

Over the next five years we are aiming for further growth and greater influence. By 2020, we aim to have a 90% share of the Merchant sector with 500 Merchants and 250 Suppliers in membership, making us at the very least the third largest Trade Association in the construction industry. But even more importantly, we want to be regarded by our members, our peers, and by those we seek to influence as one of the best and most professionally run Trade organisations in the UK.

This article appeared in the October 2017 edition of Builders' Merchants News