Building_Services_Business_Plan_2026-2029 Appendix
Renfrewshire Council · 10 September 2026
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 10 September 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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PUBLIC Renfrewshire Council Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Internal Service Provider Building Services Three Year Business Plan 2026/7 (year 1) to 2028/9 (Year 3)
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Page 2 of 33 PUBLIC Contents Page(s) Executive Summary 4 Section 1.0 – Overall Business Context 1.1 The Council’s Commitment to Building Services 5 1.2 Building Services Mission Statement and Key Service Standards 7 1.3 How do we achieve the Key Standards? 9 1.4 Building Services core functions, services provided and not provided 10 1.5 Building Services Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Priorities 12 Section 2.0 – Service Improvement Activities and Outcome Updates 15 2.1 Trade Operative Productivity Analysis 16 2.2 Financial Productivity level Analysis 16 2.3 Cost per job Housing and Non-Housing 17 2.4 Work Portfolio Demand and Delivery Profiling 18 2.5 Housing Repairs Diagnosis, Categorisation and Scheduling 19 2.6 Building Services Staff Support 20 2.7 Building Services Management Structure/s 22 2.8 Business Unit 1 - Planned and Responsive Repairs 23 2.9 Business Unit 2 - Void House Repairs 23 2.10 Business Unit 3 – Compliance 24 2.11 Business Unit 4 – Contracts and Planned works 24 2.12 Building Services Subcontractor Subcontractors 24 2.13 Internal Customer Service Centre 25
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Page 3 of 33 PUBLIC Section 3.0 – Building Services Financial Projections 3.1 Expenditure 25 3.2 Income 26 Section 4.0 – Building Services Hourly Labour Recharge Rates in 2025/26 4.1 Charging Mechanism 27 4.2 Recharge Rates 2026/27 28 Section 5.0 – Workforce 5.1 Workforce Composition, progression and planning 29 5.2 Adult Apprentice programme 31 5.3 Further and Higher Education 31 5.4 Working with local Colleges and other agencies. 32 5.5 Upskilling and re-skilling 32 Section 6 – Conclusion 33
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Page 4 of 33 PUBLIC Executive Summary Renfrewshire Council’s Building Services is a vital internal provider, delivering responsive, planned, and compliance-based property maintenance across the Council’s housing and public building estate. This three-year Business Plan (2026– 2029) sets out a clear roadmap for service delivery, improvement, and transformation, aligned with the Council’s strategic objectives and values. Key Achievements to Date • Delivered over 103,000 jobs in 2025/26 with a turnover of £25.25 million (excluding Kitchens and Boiler programme) • Maintained productivity above the national average (4.8 jobs/per operative per day vs. industry average of 4.5). • Achieved high compliance in gas and electrical safety, with 99.9% of gas certificates issued on time. • Embedded a strong culture of workforce development, with 24 apprentices currently on the apprenticeship programme. Strategic Priorities (2026–2029) • Service Excellence: Improve customer satisfaction through better diagnostics, appointment systems, and first-time fix rates. • Workforce Planning: continue to address an ageing workforce through succession planning, apprenticeships, and upskilling. • Digital Transformation: Upgrade the WorkHub system to enhance scheduling, reporting, and performance tracking. • Financial Sustainability: Maintain cost-effective operations through strategic and timeous budget monitoring. • Sustainability: Support the Council’s Net Zero agenda through energy- efficient repairs wherever possible. Challenges Ahead • High volumes of emergency repairs. For 2025/26 - 34% of Housing repairs 17% of public buildings repairs) which in turn limits planned work efficiency. • System limitations affecting KPI expansion and real-time performance analytics. • Introduction of Awaab’s Law in October 2026 (should Building Services be required to assist Housing Services).
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Page 5 of 33 PUBLIC Our Commitment Building Services remains committed to delivering a high quality, customer focused, and value for money service. This plan outlines how we will adapt to future demands, invest in our people, and continue to provide essential services that keep Renfrewshire’s homes and public buildings safe, compliant, and resilient. 1.0 Overall Business Context 1.1 The Council’s Commitment to Building Services Renfrewshire Council is committed to ensuring that it provides a high quality, internal service provider with regards to the repairs and maintenance service across both council houses and the wider public building portfolio. This commitment comes from the highest levels of the organisation including the Chief Executive, Director of Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EH&I) and the wider Corporate Management Team (CMT). This includes Corporately for issues like ICT, Finance and HR. Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment, Housing and Infrastructure outlined his commitment by stating: “An Internal Service provider is essential to allow Renfrewshire Council to react quickly to emergencies, take ownership of problems and to react swiftly and decisively in the face of challenge. As the Director, I have committed to maintaining this service, growing it as required and ensuring we deliver a high level of service and “right first time” approach to repairs, maintenance and compliance work.” Whilst this is noted to be a large commitment, this is required to allow the Council to provide Best Value, align with the Corporate Objectives, fulfil the Council values and more importantly to allow Renfrewshire Council to react swiftly in the time of a crisis. Within Environment, Housing and Infrastructure, there is a commitment from Housing Services to continue to use the internal service provider as the main contractor for the repairs and maintenance service. This will ensure a steady flow of appropriate work (reactive and capital) to allow appropriate planning within the 3- yearly business plan in relation to trades/workload and workforce planning. This will tie in and align with the Housing Services 30-year plan. Senior Management within Building Services will continue to commit to delivering a high level of service for clients and stakeholders. This will include the continued recruitment of staff, “growing our own” staff via apprenticeships and delivering the continued training as legislation and maintenance requirements continue to evolve.
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Page 6 of 33 PUBLIC We will continue to strive for improvement and monitor this via the EH&I Service Improvement Plan (SIP), through productivity monitoring and by ensuring appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are implemented and met. One of the key commitments is to keep residents, communities and members of the public safe, therefore we will continue to visit emergencies and make safe anything that is deemed as dangerous. Building Services are essential to Renfrewshire Council, especially during a crisis e.g. Storm Eowyn in January 2025 which brought the whole country to a complete standstill and led to severe damage across the Renfrewshire estate. Building Services worked throughout the weekend/nights to ensure the safety of the residents and that the schools and public buildings could open safely on the Monday morning. This shows the commitment and value that Building Services provides to the local community of Renfrewshire. In addition, it is highly unlikely that any private contractor could have responded as quickly with sufficient resources to cover all of the works required within the timescales. It is also true that the costs of an external contractor for emergency works at very short notice over a weekend would have been extremely expensive. Finally, there is a strong commitment across EH&I that Housing Services, Soft FM, Technical Services and Building Services will work together, collaborate, and deliver a high-quality repairs and maintenance service for Renfrewshire Council. 1.2 Building Services’ Mission Statement and Key Service Standards To provide a high quality, customer focused and cost-effective property repairs and maintenance service for Renfrewshire residents and visitors. 1.2.1 Building Services organisational values are: • To strive for high quality service delivery, • To ensure a “right first time” approach where possible • Provide our customers with a flexible responsive repairs service which reflects their needs and expectations, • Commit to achieving continuous improvement across all areas of service delivery. • Support and encourage our employees by providing development opportunities such as adult and youth apprenticeships, up-skilling and multi-skilling, toolbox talks and training courses. 1.2.2 Our business aims and objectives are derived from our values and incorporate three main themes:
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Page 7 of 33 PUBLIC • Improving customer service and quality, • Increase productivity, efficiency, and value for money, • Enhance employee development, communication, and safety. Building Services is an integral part of the comprehensive Facilities and Property Services Division within Renfrewshire Council. Building Services mission statement and key service standards detailed above are aligned to the overall aims and objectives of the Facilities and Property Service and Renfrewshire Council’s mission and values as detailed in the diagram below.
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Page 8 of 33 PUBLIC Renfrewshire Council’s Mission We will achieve our vision by showing that we are proud to work for Renfrewshire Council and for making decisions based on what is best for people who live and work in Renfrewshire. We are committed to creating a sustainable economy, society and environment that will benefit future generations. Renfrewshire Council Values - We are fair. We treat each other and everyone we deal with respectfully and work hard to build trust in Renfrewshire Council. - We are helpful. We care about getting things right and are always approachable. - We are great collaborators. We work as one team and with people who care about this place. - We value learning to help us innovate, improve, and deliver better services. The vison and priorities of Facilities and Property Services reflect the needs at a departmental level. “We work together to create, build, repair, maintain, open/close, clean and improve the built environment for the communities and residents of Renfrewshire”. Overarching priorities for Facilities and Property Services in 2025/26: - Focus on the recruitment and retention of staff. - Focus on absence management, PDP’s and workforce planning/succession planning cross Facilities and Property Services. Building Services priorities for 2026/27: - provide stability across Building Services through staff retention, workforce flexibility and succession planning whilst growing the workforce of the future. - Complete and ratify a robust business plan that looks at the short medium and long term for Building Services. - To increase the overall volume of work by carrying out works for Technical Services, Hard FM, Social Work, and Children’s Services.
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Page 9 of 33 PUBLIC 1.3 How do we achieve the Key Standards? Building Services aims to achieve the key Service Standards by comprehensively looking at the individual aspects of the service and to aspire to achieve the following: 1.3.1 To improve customer service and quality we will: • Work with our partners to deliver works programmes that reflect their business needs – Programmed repairs (P/P9, D/9) • Undertake repairs using the correct trade skills and materials on a first visit basis - Emergencies (E), Right to Repair (Q same day), Right to repair (Q), Urgent (U5), • Provide a flexible customer appointment system that provides options such as AM or PM, school run flexibility, text reminders - Routine repair (A), % of appointment kept. Section 1.5 provides more details of the KPI performance tracking across all categories of repairs. Additional categories of repairs maybe required in the future to better suit the type of future work in conjunction with the ambition to move to a more planned repairs service. We will continue to work with our colleagues in Housing Services and Hard FM as the systems development moves forward to explore the additional KPI category. This will allow repairs that take longer than 15 days but would not be appropriate to extend out to 90 days to be measured more accurately. As an example, this would include roofing works that may contain scaffolding. KPIs have been introduced for compliance works in the Public Building environment. 1.3.2 We will increase productivity, efficiency, and value for money by: • Continually reviewing our resource inputs, business operating costs and outputs to ensure value for money in service delivery, • Increasing productivity by using modern working practices and effective job scheduling, • Maximising the use and benefit of technology across the business, • Benchmarking Building Services with similar service providers and seeking efficiencies, The Service continuously reviews costs across all of the business areas and ensure that they are correct and pursue any cost reductions to ensure best value across all service delivery aspects. More detail is provided in section 2.3. Productivity is being monitored weekly and has been in place since November 2023. The tracking across the whole financial year has shown that the productivity fluctuates across the year due to public holidays, annual leave, weather, seasons etc
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Page 10 of 33 PUBLIC but the average across 2025/26 was 4.8 jobs per operative per day which is above the industry average of 4.5. 1.3.3 We will enhance employee development, communication, and safety by: • Supporting our employees in learning and development, • Supporting and embracing change by encouraging employee involvement, • Promoting and encouraging effective communication with employees and their representatives, • Providing a safe working environment for our employees. 1.3.4 Building Services stakeholders and Partners are: • Residents and council House tenants • Public Buildings users • Council employees • Housing Services • Hard FM • Technical Services • Children’s Services • Social Work 1.4 Building Services core functions, services provided and not provided. Building Services core business is the repair and maintenance of council owned properties in Renfrewshire. To ensure full compliance with legislation and includes all council houses, schools, public halls, libraries and offices. The service undertook approximately 103,000 individual jobs in 2025/26 and its budgeted turnover was £25.25m (excluding Kitchens and boilers) and for 26/27 the number of jobs is not anticipated to reduce, and the budgeted turnover be around £28.5m. This includes the kitchen and boiler replacement capital programme estimated to provide an additional turnover of circa £3m per year during 26/27 and up to £3m annually in the coming years. As a repairs and maintenance service, there is a wealth of skills that may also undertake and manage refurbishment works and capital programme works across the Renfrewshire Council portfolio. In 2025/26 Building Services secured a 5-year programme of kitchen and boiler replacement across the housing estate which commenced in July 2025 and will continue to 2030. In addition, Building Services have also secured 3 further school toilet refurbishments in 2026/27, and some larger commercial gas works across the public building estate due to our increase skills and resources in this area.
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Page 11 of 33 PUBLIC 1.4.1 Core Competences Building Services core competences is in the provision of a multi-trade property repairs, maintenance and refurbishment service covering both housing and non- housing (public buildings) properties. These key activities can be summarised as: Housing repairs, maintenance, and refurbishment • Providing council house tenants with a multi trade responsive repairs service on an appointment-based system (from 8am to 4pm) allowing flexibility of appointments during the working day. • Provide the same responsive repairs service for public buildings (schools etc). • Having a multi trade emergency repairs service which operates on a 24hr/7 day a week basis for both council tenants and public buildings. This is a make safe service only any works required will be carried out within working hours. • Responding to other emergencies such as the effects of inclement weather, police call outs and major incidents. • Repairs and refurbishment of empty/void properties to a specified re-let standard. • Planned cyclical maintenance works such as gas, electrics, and window servicing. • Work associated with improvement projects which can include including bathrooms, kitchens, rewires and central heating. • Aids and adaptations to assist tenants with physical challenges to remain in their homes. • Undertake fire damage and insurance repairs. • Provide a common repairs facility to owner occupied properties. • Mobile key cutting service and cosmetic repair service. Non-housing repairs and maintenance • Provide a repairs and maintenance service and emergency call out service for non-residential properties such as schools and public buildings. • Undertake specific project work including refurbishments on behalf of the other teams in the Facilities and Property Service. • Provide a comprehensive compliance service for all public buildings including gas, electrics, water management, air conditioning and emergency lighting. 1.4.2 Building Services do not carry out the following Services: • Repairs to intercoms/aerials in houses or public buildings. • Control the kitchen replacement or window replacement programmes. • Carry out pre inspections to determine if a repair is required.
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Page 12 of 33 PUBLIC • Carry out all repairs and maintenance across Renfrewshire. • Flat roofing • Carry out cleaning of road gullies. • Environmental cleaning/ clearing works. • Garden Maintenance. • Tenanted house glazing. • Graffiti removal. • Streetlighting. 1.5 Building Services’ Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Priorities 1.5.1 Housing % OF REPAIRS WITHIN TARGET Target 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Emergency Completed (E/E4) 99% 97.05% 97.79% 98.04% Right to Repair Completed (Q Same Day) 99% 99.04% 99.01% 99.17% Right to Repair Completed (Q) 97% 98.10% 99.89% 99.14% Urgent Completed (U5) 97% 62.59% 80.83% 82.25% Routine Completed (A) 97% 88.54% 89.25% 92.88% Programmed Completed (P/P9 D D/9) 97% 98.23% 99.33% 99.53% OVERALL REPAIRS COMPLETE WITHIN TARGET 94% 92.42% 93.59% 95.73% The categorisation of repairs requires to be reviewed as part of the Housing Repairs Policy review (see section 2.5). In addition, it is proposed that the targets and category of repairs will be reviewed with Housing to ensure they remain valid and if additional categories are required, they can be introduced and monitored in future years. APPOINTMENTS Target 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 % of repairs made by appointment 82% 99% 100% 99.85% % of non emergency repairs kept 99% 93% 81.94% 86.05% Gas Service / Inspections Target 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Number of Services Carried Out 9,479 10,469 10,736 Gas Certificates Obtained Before Previous Expiry (%) 100.00% 99.81% 99.95% 99.90%
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Page 13 of 33 PUBLIC Compliance within the housing environment has been much more closely monitored within the last 3 years and therefore the development of KPIs to specifically track and monitor the progress across the compliance categories should be further developed. Potential additional categories are highlighted below. Building Services will work with the Housing compliance colleagues to develop these as official KPIs over the coming months. Consideration should also be given to the level of remedial works that are required following an EICR inspection as this would be anticipated to fall over time due to the regular inspections now in place. Forced smoothing of the annual number is now being carried out to prevent large numbers of renewals being due all at the same time. This equates to 2500 – 3000 house per year moving forward. ELECTRICAL Target 2024/25 2025/26 2026-27 Number of EICR’s completed 1935 4001* Number of forced entries for EICR 600 737 Electrical paperwork inspected 100% 100% 100% Properties physically inspected 10% N/A N/A Number of properties with remedial works following EICR 900 900 The total number of EICR’s carried out is 3264+737 forced accesses. 1.5.2 Non-Housing KPI Development Working with our colleagues in Hard FM Services we are continuing to develop meaningful and measurable KPIs and targets areas moving forward. We have mirrored the same criteria as Housing for consistency and the data will be populated from the Workhub and CAMIS systems. % OF REPAIRS COMPLETED WITHIN TARGET New Target 2024/25 2025/26 2026/27 Emergency Completed (E) 24 hours 99% 94.63% 99% Urgent Completed (U5) 5 days 95% 48.68% 58%* Routine Completed (A) 15 days 90% 73.11% 83% Programmed Completed 90 days 100% 92.63% 100% Planned 247 days 100% 100% 100% *The U5 Category has improved but works on going to make further improvements.
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Page 14 of 33 PUBLIC Compliance categories Element of compliance Target % carried out within anniversary 25/26 % carried out within anniversary 26/27 % carried out within anniversary 27/28 Electrical (including MUGA's) 90% 90% Emergency lighting 90% 92% Water Management (including showers and swimming pools) 90% 97% Gas 90% 100% HVAC 90% 100% Canopies 90% 100% 1.5.3 Building Services Targets • Productivity –the industry average is noted to be 4.5 jobs per operative/per day. Building Services will strive to ensure the productivity stays at or above 4.5 for the average no of jobs per operative per day within the responsive repairs section. Work hub will be able to produce more statistics when it is upgraded, and this will be kept under review by Senior Managers. • Absence – target of 6.37% • Voids - number per week currently averaging 11-15. Timescale targets based on work content. The average number of hours per void property has increased steadily to 141 hours per property in 25/26. The average turn around days has reduced to an average of 13.3 days for 25/26 (including exemptions). Section 2.0 – Service Improvement Activities and Outcome Updates Service reviews and improvements over the last 5 years have been instrumental in driving service re-designs, data monitoring improvements and increasing accountability. This is the Council's commitment to ensuring that the very best services are being delivered to its residents. In 2021 following a review it was recommended that: • Processes and procedures were to be detailed in writing including roles and responsibilities of the data management. • The reintroduction of a 3-year business plan. • The reintroduction of service level agreements. • The reintroduction of targeted and detailed financial information. • The reintroduction of a productivity monitoring process at the trade level. • The review of deployment and SOR codes.
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Page 15 of 33 PUBLIC • The review of increasing responsive repairs especially within the emergency category. In 2022 following a further review it was recommended: • To complete the review of the asbestos policy. • Review KPIs • Review void process and create a single voids team. • Review the stores provision within Building Services. • Structured monthly review and performance meetings. • Review and refresh of the current fleet. • Review the current electronic repairs and deployment systems. • Review central charges. In 2023 it was recommended: • Development of a suite of KPIs for Public Buildings. • Develop a new sub-contractor supply chain. In 2024 it was recommended: • Review the structure of Building Services. • Create a commercial team to assist across Housing, Public Buildings and Building Services. • Continue to develop commercial report and provide accurate forecasting. • Review productivity and value for money. • Look to deliver more capital programme works. • Review the support services provided, reporting lines and adequacy of service provision. Throughout this intense review period Building Services have worked to carry out as many of the recommendations as possible and have achieved a much greater level of information and proof that Building Service are providing an invaluable service to Renfrewshire Council and its residents. These reviews have also shown that Building Services are providing a strong, robust service contrary to previous reporting and beliefs. 2.1 Trade Operative Productivity Analysis From a review in 2023/4, a new process was put in place to measure productivity across the responsive service within Building Services. This is approximately 65 – 70 operatives who carry out responsive repairs for Housing Services. This encompasses gas engineers, electricians, joiners, plasterers, painters, bricklayers, plumbers, slaters, drainage operatives, and general maintenance operatives. They confirmed that the national industry average is 4.5 jobs per operative for responsive repairs services. The chart below shows that the tracking of the productivity in Building Services has shown that the service is operating above the industry average. N.B. Caution must be made when interpreting these figures over time as the move from less responsive work to more planned work may lead to lower jobs per day.
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Page 16 of 33 PUBLIC Productivity analysis Productivity levels must be measured by area of work and by trade to be comparable and realistic. The chart shown above is only currently available in responsive repairs through the manual job tracking sheet introduced as part of the consultant review. The current IT system Work Hub will be able to provide additional reports on all of the areas and trades across Building Services when it is upgraded. 2.2 Financial Productivity level Analysis. In order to calculate the hourly rate for each trade within Building Services we must first calculate the physical available hours per year per operative. If we start from 100% and deduct annual leave, training, sick leave and non- productive time (vehicle breakdowns, stores collections etc) the resulting percentage would be the available hours that can be worked. It is hoped that over the next 3 years this can be increased annually, and the proposed improvement is indicated below. This will be measured quarterly to ensure increases in productivity are being realised. Continued work is required with colleagues in HR to ensure there are modern, clear policies in relation to absence and Occupational Health. There is currently a corporate focus on this and remains a challenging area. • 2025/26 – 75.94% 7.01% sickness – achieved a better productivity result and a lower sickness. • 2026/27 – 76.45% 6.37% sickness assuming a 10% improvement of 25/26. • 2027/28 – 76.95% 6.0% sickness • 2028/29 – 77.45% 5.5% sickness 2.3 Cost per job Housing and Non-Housing
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Page 17 of 33 PUBLIC As part of the review the costs per job for both housing and non-housing were calculated to provide visibility on the value for money the service is providing. It has been confirmed that the average cost across the industry is in the region of £150 per job. As can be seen from the graph the average costs per job is consistently lower across the whole year. 2024/25 average cost £125 2025/26 average cost £124 For non-housing work it is more difficult to provide an industry average as it depends on the portfolio of properties being maintained and what condition they are being maintained to. However, the consultant agreed that the average costs being tracked across the year were within the normal limits anticipated for this category of repairs. 2024/25 average cost £220 2025/26 average cost £209
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Page 18 of 33 PUBLIC * December 25 - It should be noted that there is a 2 week shut down in December when only emergencies and a small amount of compliance are carried out therefore the number of jobs carried out over this period will be lower and the costs for delivering during holidays increases. 2.4 Work Portfolio Demand and Delivery Profiling Working in partnership with Housing Services it has been possible to secure more detailed work profiles. However, we will look to work together to move away from the current substantial responsive repairs to a more planned work approach as this allows for increased efficiency and better service delivery. In the short term, the volume of voids remains lower than in previous years, however, the large-scale demolition and build programme may be influencing these numbers. However, the volume of work content within the current void houses has been increasing which negates any savings in time or resources. It is also anticipated that the volume of responsive repairs will also remain high as stated above until a full review of the Council’s housing policies are undertaken. After discussions with Housing Services, all works to Homeless Person Units (HPU) properties will also now be passed to Building Services with a view to extending this to some of the SHQS voids as required. Building Services will undertake a considerable amount of boiler and kitchen replacements over the next 5 years which commenced in July 2025. This has allowed a more planned rather than a reactive approach to workload ensuring continuity of work. Further discussions will be ongoing with regards to new and emerging technologies to ensure that Building Services have the correct skills and sufficient resources to take forward future installations and maintenance in areas such as solar panel maintenance, ground source heat pump maintenance and electric charging points in housing premises
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Page 19 of 33 PUBLIC 2.5 Housing and non-housing repairs diagnosis, categorisation and scheduling The categorisation of housing repairs is a combination of Housing Regulator and Housing policy. This can only be reviewed by Housing Services to see if there are any areas that the current very high level of responsive repairs can be modified. Below is the overview of volume of repairs for 2025/26 and these are only repairs carried out for Housing. 34% of all repairs are in the emergency category requiring Building Services to respond within 24 hours. This is a 1% drop from 2024/25 but there have also been few adverse weather events in 25/26 which may account for the slight decrease. This has been consistently high over the last 5 years and prevents the service from planning the workforce resources efficiently. It is also sessional and severely affected if there are adverse weather conditions. 29% of the emergency repairs are out of hours. The provision of the out of hours services is compulsory via Housing Services policy, but the volume of repairs made out of hours remains consistently high. The calls to this service are triaged and more than 40% do not result in an operative visit. In addition to the above number of repairs we have to add in additional repair visits not included. These are removed from the overall numbers by housing as they do not form part of the repairs reported to the housing regulator. Housing Other categories not included in the figure above 8948 *Assists (Two Operative Visit) 3023
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Page 20 of 33 PUBLIC For the total number of repairs that Building Services carry out we also need to add in the repairs carried out in public buildings, community centers, schools and leisure facilities. Public Buildings repairs 15,168 Therefore, the total number of repairs that Building Services operatives have been deployed to in 25/26 is 102,973. Looking closely at the overall numbers for Public Buildings it can be seen that 15% of all repairs are currently categorised as an emergency with 29% classified as urgent with 29% being designated as a routine repair. This is an improvement of 5% on the combined emergency and urgent repairs (44%). While this is an improvement it is still relatively high and does affect the ability to effectively plan resources. We will continue to work with our colleagues to identify the miscoding of repairs and look for further improvements in the classification of works. 2.6 Building Services Staff Support 2.6.1 IT support Building Services currently uses the WorkHub system which is an electronic repairs management system. This has been functioning at a basic level for 4 years and a new version of the product was hoped to be introduced in late 2025 which should allow greater monitoring and analysis of the business however this did not materialise. Therefore, Building Services relies on the specialist team to provide detailed reports across many important areas of the business to ensure we do have consistent monitoring. 29% 15%27% 29% Public Building Repairs 25-26 A - Appointments within 15 days E - Emergency within 1 day P - Planned within 247 Days U5 - Urgent within 5 days
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Page 21 of 33 PUBLIC Building Services and the Support team are working with colleagues in Housing Services to design and implement a new repairs system through the replacement product for the Housing OHMS system. 2.6.2 Stores support The stores provision within Building Services for 25/26 had a turnover of approximately £3.2 million per annum and a stock holding of approximately £500,000 which is a reduction in both areas through a review of stock. This has improved the stock turnover ratio from 5.25 to 6.4 which is now above the industry average of between 4 and 6. Building Services are working with procurement to get the best prices for all materials required across the business and the price paid for the materials used on any job are charged at cost only. The staffing and operational structure of Stores will be reviewed within the next 12 months to ensure it continues to be fit for purpose and robust for any workload changes. 2.6.3 Transport support Building Services have permission to procure a new fleet, however an options paper is required from Transport colleagues in order that strategic and financial decisions can be made on the future direction of the procurement and the make-up of the fleet. This may be a combination of purchasing and leasing in order to get the best provision possible. An options appraisal is required to get the right blend of vehicles for staff and this should include electric vehicles wherever possible, however, this comes with distinct challenges. For efficiency and practicality, most operatives take their works vehicles home so they can deploy directly to their 1st job in the morning. Therefore, if more electric fleet were to be introduced there would be a requirement for operatives to potentially charge their vehicle at their home address. Development of usable reports from the vehicle tracking system has been extremely difficult and work continues with colleagues to create a dashboard (potentially via AI) to assist Officers in overseeing staff movements. 2.6.4 Office Provision Building Services will move to dedicated offices within Unit 5 in mid-September 2026. This allows all Building Services staff to be in one location and also satisfies the recommendations within both the external and internal audit reports. In addition, there is also a potential opportunity to install two large solar arrays on the roof of unit 5 that could generate a large volume of electricity for the whole depot which will have
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Page 22 of 33 PUBLIC a payback period of 3 years and considerably contribute to the Councils’ green targets. 2.6.5 Office and non-technical support The repairs support team are now fully integrated into Building Services. The structure of the team was revised so that there was a clear structure including a manager and two senior officers overseeing the daily support teams. The team was also increased to meet the growing demand for record management, specialised compliance tasks and day to day operations. The team are working to use AI for as many tasks as possible to ultimately reduce the large amount of manual inputting. The new Housing repairs system that should come on-line in 2027 should also help to streamline the processes. 2.7 Building Services Management Structure/s The trade workforce is supported by a management and supervisory structure covering areas such as operational management, contract & commercial management, technical & productivity supervision. After additional workload and contracts were added in June of 2025, the service is now a 4-division operation and re-designed the teams within each area to match the type of workload and the ambitious programme of review and development over the next 3 years. Each unit had its own dedicated Senior Facilities Manager and Facilities Technical and Productivity Supervisors allowing increased flexibility within the service and the service will be more able to adaptable to future developments and changes. The structure will be monitored annually taking into account current resources, future resources, workforce planning and new business development
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Page 23 of 33 PUBLIC areas. The FTE numbers are the number of direct employees, however, the business units are also supplemented with Agency staff and sub-contractor as the work profiles dictate. 2.8 Business Unit 1 - Void House Repairs 2.81 This business unit employs circa 66 FTE (mixed trades) to undertake works on properties which have been vacated and are empty. 2.82 When a property becomes vacant the Housing Client function decides what each property requires in terms of repairs to meet the letting standard. Currently if void houses require new kitchens, bathroom or rewired they are passed to an external contractor who are managed directly by Housing Services, however, this is to be reviewed to allow some of the work to be given to Building Services. The volume and flow of work to the void team is unpredictable on a weekly basis but averages over the year. In 2025/26 they completed 556 full void packs and 123 gas heating installations. While this is approximately 70% of all void houses the time with Building Services only equates to less than 2% of the total rent loss. 2.83 Previously Homeless Persons Units (HPUs) were passed to external contractors to carry out remedial works and some of the timescales for return were extensive, however in February 2026 they were passed to Building Services. The number and timescales will remain under review as these homes have the largest rent loss amounts attached to them. 2.9 Business Unit 2 - Responsive Repairs 2.91 This business unit undertakes repairs for both Housing Services and Public Buildings. Responsive and contract repairs can be defined as “maintenance repairs arising from a landlord’s obligation to carry out repairs to a property as per a tenants request (emergency, urgent or routine) and unanticipated works such as fire flood or other weather damage”[1]. 2.92 This is the principal business unit within Building Services as it provides a service directly to tenants and users of public buildings and must be resourced to meet the demand. This business unit employs circa 53 full time tradespersons (mixed trades) to undertake these repairs. The flow, volume and value of responsive work is based on tenant and customer demand mainly via the customer contact centre. When the workload fluctuates significantly, e.g. responding to storm damage, management increase the employee resources in the Responsive Unit by moving operatives from other business units. 2.93 This business unit must be highly experienced in dealing with all types of tenant groups as achieving high customer satisfaction requires a service to demonstrate timeliness, quality, cleanliness and cost effectiveness in providing a responsive repairs service. Customer surveys are used to gauge satisfaction with Housing Repairs Services across the Council.
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Page 24 of 33 PUBLIC [1] Chartered Institute of Housing 2.10 Business Unit 3 - Compliance 2.10.1 Circa 49 FTE (mixed trades) and specialist support staff are employed in this business unit. Compliance is a large part of the legal responsibility of a landlord. Building Services carry out many of these requirements for both Housing Services and Public Buildings. 2.10.2 There is a timetable for all types of compliance which varies across disciplines depending on the legislation. Areas that this will cover are, water management, electrical testing and certification and gas certification. 2.11 Business Unit 4 – Contracts and planned 2.11.1 Circa 41 FTE (mixed trade and support staff) are currently employed in this business unit. A large part of their workload is the management and delivery of the two major investment programmes Kitchens installations and boiler renewal. However, the staffing level will increase as demand for more programmed and project work increases. 2.11.2 They also carry out the capital investment works for the public buildings including 3 major bathroom refurbishments across the learning estate. 2.11.3 The business unit is also expanding their workload by carrying out project work for both hard FM and Technical Services. 2.12 Building Services Subcontractors Building Services currently use different procurement options including the use of existing frameworks via the local government procurement frameworks and their processes. At times, this can be restrictive, does not allow for much deviation and does not current allow for local SMEs to work with the Council. A new local company repairs and maintenance framework was developed to try to ensure that more small local businesses SMEs are able to work alongside the Council. This is a key Council challenge to help support and grow the local economy and is being kept under review. 2.13 Internal Customer Service Centre The Customer Service centre operatives work through and implement the policies set out by our colleagues in Housing Services. This dictates the workflow to Building Services.
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Page 25 of 33 PUBLIC It is anticipated that the replacement of the Housing management system to a more integrated system will help align the frontline contact with the deployment of resources by providing better diagnostics tools. Section 3.0 – Building Services’ Financial Projections 3.1 Expenditure Building Services has worked extremely hard to be able to provide a greater level of financial detail and understanding. Working with colleagues in finance over the last 2 years, we are now able to provide a much more comprehensive analysis of finances and continue to develop reports and processes to improve all aspects of the finances. The financial details are set out below to show the definitions and complexity of the financial model that Building Services operates within. Expenditure incurred by Building Services can be categorised as a direct cost for providing a specific task rechargeable to the client or as part of the overall overhead cost of operating as a distinct service area. Staffing costs can be broken down over these two categories with the direct staff being the craftsmen, manual operatives and agency staff who carry out tasks on behalf of clients and can attribute costs directly to a workstream as an allocation of time. The indirect staff costs are the managers, stores staff and administration staff who ensure that the services can be delivered and function appropriately. Overhead costs that are not staff, include the depot running costs, commercial waste not directly allocated to a workstream, ICT overheads, small tools and equipment for the workforce, administration costs, insurance, central administration costs for support services (payroll, personnel, accountancy, call centre, audit, legal, procurement etc) amongst others. Transport is another overhead cost associated with operating the business while this will have an element of variability depending on the work requirements and the volume of staff and agency employed this on the whole is treated as a fixed overhead cost. Apprentices - since 2024/25 the allocation of apprentice costs has been included as a direct overhead for the business and this is linked to the long-term workforce planning requirements. Apprenticeships are a positive practice to enhance workforce planning approaches - a ‘grow your own’ opportunity for the service which enables access to employment and a career in Building Services for young people. The
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Page 26 of 33 PUBLIC current establishment allows for around 24 apprentices across a multi trade and training profile. The recruitment of youth apprentices is restricted to Renfrewshire Council residents only therefore providing direct benefits to the local economy and local residents. Materials - in terms of other direct costs which are variable in nature and will depend on the type of work, volume of work and the timing of the workload received from clients. These include the cost of materials used to deliver the work – this is a combination of materials utilised from the internal store within Building Services or as direct material allocated to the individual job. Sub-contractors – is a direct variable cost is in relation to the utilisation of subcontractor’s procured by Building Services; this will again vary depending on the workload and the capabilities internally to deliver specific services. An example of this may be in the sub-contracting of specialised drainage works out with the internal workforces’ capabilities or skills. The budget for Building Services is proposed as follows for 2025/26 – 2027/28 across the categories and based on historical budget levels. Category 2026/27 2027/28 2028/29 Direct Staffing 11,272,332 11,610,502 11,842,712 Overhead Staffing 4,199,108 4,325,081 4,411,583 Overhead Costs 4,393,448 4,481,317 4,570,944 Variable Costs 8,581,100 8,752,722 8,927,776 Full Year Budget * 28,445,988 29,169,622 29,753,015 In future years have assumed the same inflation as the HRA BP with CPI of 2.0% for all costs in 27/28+28/29 except using 3.0% for staffing inflation in 27/28 as per the HRA BP assumption This budget is an area that is under review and will remain under constant review to ensure that Building Services can adapt to future and changing priorities and to ensure that the budget reflects the changing environment. 3.2 Income Historically, Building Services can allocate the majority if not all of its income across 4 main income stream categories. HRA Revenue, HRA Capital, General Services Revenue and General Services Capital. HRA Revenue Income This includes income for the provision of services / contracts for Void Repairs, Reactive Repairs, Planned Maintenance, and other repairs for HRA revenue. This includes work on compliance for gas, electrical and water safety in the 12k council
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Page 27 of 33 PUBLIC properties. At present an element of the overall void works for the HRA based on the existing staffing levels within Building Services. HRA Capital Income This is work classed as major investments with the HRA and historically has included income for workstreams such as Heating Works, Kitchen and Bathrooms, Disabled Adaptations, rewiring, legislative compliance such as the smoke and heat detector programme. Again, this is an area that Building Services at present can deliver within the existing staffing levels. General Services Revenue Income This is work carried out on behalf of the non-housing properties owned by the Council such as the school estate, community centres, town halls, operational offices and also properties managed by OneRen via the Public Buildings workstream. This includes work on compliance testing and emergency and planned repairs and maintenance. General Services Capital Income This is work carried out on behalf of the non-housing properties owned by the Council as noted above but of a Capital investment nature. This is an area where the historical levels of income have reduced reflective of the financial constraints within the General Services Capital budget. Section 4.0 – Building Services Hourly Labour Recharge Rates in 2025/26 4.1 Charging Mechanism The direct staffing and overhead costs will form part of an hourly labour rate for each trade type to be charged to each workstream via the manual timesheet process or via the PDA process directly. A calculation of the productive time for trades and craft staff will be carried out on a regular basis to ensure full recover of direct and overhead costs as part of the charging mechanism. The variable costs such as stock materials, direct materials and sub-contractors will be recharges at cost to the client budgets based on workstreams received. 4.2 Recharge Rates 2026/27 The hourly recharge rate reflects a combination of fixed and variable cost elements, including pay, national insurance, pension contributions and overheads. These assumptions are regularly reviewed to reflect inflationary pressures, workforce
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Page 28 of 33 PUBLIC changes and legislative impacts, and are aligned with the Medium-Term Financial Plan. The methodology underpinning recharge rates and cost allocations is subject to periodic review to ensure it remains robust, equitable and compliant with best practice. This supports the delivery of Value for Money, ensuring that charges are transparent, appropriate and reflective of efficient service delivery. The review of recharge rates is ongoing to ensure full cost recovery and compliance with statutory requirements. It has been agreed, with appropriate financial oversight, that any over- or under-recovery will be addressed in-year, with a year-end adjustment where required between Building Services, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the General Fund, ensuring no cross-subsidy. Performance against recharge rates is monitored throughout the year to identify and address variances at an early stage. This approach reduces the risk of material year- end adjustments and supports robust financial management. A materiality threshold is applied to ensure focus remains on significant variances, enabling proportionate and effective financial control Section 5 – Workforce 5.1 Workforce Composition, progression and planning. The total workforce of Building Services, as of April 2026, consisted of 277 full and part time staff. The tradespersons cover 10 different building and maintenance related trades and include 24 apprentices (within the business at various stages of qualification) and 4 close cleaners.
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Page 29 of 33 PUBLIC As the workload evolves, we will continually review the skill sets we require to deliver to our customers and it is likely that in the future Building Services will recruit from alternative trades and undertake internal training to upskill some of our existing employees to undertake alternative works, to meet the long term demands from our customers. 73.65% of the existing Building Services staff live within the Renfrewshire area. Building Services provide a good working environment as well as job security for many Renfrewshire residents. The age profile of the workforce has been analysed to look at the current distribution of ages across all the trade, management and support staff. Looking forward in the short term (within the next 12 months) we have a number of trades people and management who will be looking for options such as reduced hours, flexible retirement, ill health retirement or full retirement. The service remains flexible with all staff on trying to accommodate options to suit both the employee and the service. This can be evidenced by the 1.3% shift from fulltime to part time within the last year and this figure is expected to rise. Overall, just under 37% of the workforce is over 50 years old. Many of the employees around and above 55 years have extremely long service and have expressed an interest to pursue flexible retirement or leave well before the national retirement age. However, Building Services continue to work hard to attract and retain new and existing employees to ensure we have the workforce to deliver the service required. This can be evidenced in the 2.2% rise in the number of employees under 25 years old. The trade wages are now only just below standard external commercial wages,
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Page 30 of 33 PUBLIC however, with the addition of pension benefits, flexible working, further and higher education access it is being seen as a good option by tradesperson and the number of applicants for trade jobs has seen a marked increase over the last year. As part of succession planning and in order to be able to provide the level of service in the future, we need to look very carefully at how we create the workforce of the future, retain the existing staff and attract new employees. Short term – 12 months • five trade apprentices annually now agreed for next 3 years. • One adult trade apprentice from within the existing employees of Renfrewshire Council. • Flexible retirement as an option instead of full retirement for eligible staff so they can remain part of the workforce, pass on their knowledge and skills. • Employee development programme open to all employees– HNC/ CMI/ Degree. • Support and mentor employees going through their degree courses. • Trainee Supervisor programme –has been developed further with strict outcomes and timelines for training. • Personal Development Plans (PDP) – completed for all office based staff but to be developed for operatives. Medium term 2-3 years • Extension of the youth and adult apprenticeship programme to match future skills needs. • Review of age profile matching trade profile to future trade skills needs. • Review existing skills within workforce and look to plan for retraining. • Continue to encourage further and higher education. • Continue to improve and develop the Trainee Supervisor Programme. • Have a comprehensive training plan for all employees. Long-term 5 years +. • Review youth and adult apprenticeship programme to match future skills needs. • Review trade skills and future technologies and plan for change. 5.2 Adult Apprentice programme Building Services started the Adult Apprentice programme in 2011 where any existing Renfrewshire employee can apply to train in various trades and qualify as a tradeperson. This has been extremely successful with candidates training in trades such as plumbing, joinery, painting and plastering.
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Page 31 of 33 PUBLIC 5.3 Further and Higher Education Building Services, over the last 12 years, has actively encouraged and supported its employees to participate in Higher and Further Education training. The table below details the Courses undertaken and what role they have moved from and to. Many have progressed to higher positions within the Council, and this has shown existing employees there is progression within both Building Services and the Council and has increased the overall retention rate as employees see a career within the Council and not just a job. Graduate apprenticeship places were recently offered out to the whole workforce as part of the selection process, they were asked to write 500 words on why they should be given this opportunity. The responses were extremely good with many saying that they had not considered that they would ever be offered this chance but could see others who had participated and gone on to other better positions. Three new candidates will commence university in September 2026. HNC Degree Original Job Role Current Job Role person 1 x x Apprentice Joiner Senior Facilities Manager person 2 x x Apprentice Joiner Senior Facilities Manager person 3 x x Apprentice Joiner Facilities Technical Supervisor person 4 x x Apprentice Plumber Facilities Coordinator person 5 x x Electrician Facilities Technical Supervisor person 6 x x Apprentice Electrician Facilities Technical Supervisor person 7 x x Apprentice Joiner Senior Facilities Manager person 8 x x Apprentice Painter Repairs & Maintenance Officer person 9 x x Estimator / Surveyor Development Manager person 10 x x Apprentice Electrician Lead Facilities Manager person 11 x x Apprentice Joiner Quantity Surveyor person 12 x x Joiner Facilities Technical Supervisor person 13 x Apprentice Electrician Electrician person 14 x Joiner Facilities Technical Supervisor person 15 x x Apprentice Electrician Electrical QS Person 16 x Apprentice Joiner Joiner Person 17 x apprentice Joiner Joiner 5.4 Working with local Colleges and other agencies Building Services works with the local college to provide work experience for school and college students throughout the year. In addition, we also provide on-site work
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Page 32 of 33 PUBLIC experience for a local gas training company to ensure the students can achieve the requirements of the course. 5.5 Upskilling and re-skilling Building Services has over the last 15 years looked to provide opportunities to the workforce to upskill and reskill, over and above the offer of adult apprenticeships and further and higher education. • Cosmetic repairs – Building Services invested in specialist training in order to be able to repair rather than replace many elements within houses and public buildings. The service is widely used in the void houses as saves both time and money. The repairs offered are extensive but include repairing scratched sanitary ware, repairing damaged kitchen doors and worktops, repairing UPVC doors and windows. • Gas engineers – 1-year intensive training to upskill to a gas engineer. The staff upskilled were a labourer, a store person, a painter and an asset co- ordinator. Under consideration is a potential opportunity to add value to our current service provision. The certified manufacture of modified timber fire doors within our workshop in conjunction with certified installers from within our frontline operatives. The current workshop has all of the required equipment necessary to make and manufacture fire doors especially for Public Buildings where they are often bespoke. Additional training for the bench hands is all that is required for Building Services to become a certified manufacturer. Along with additional training for our joiners to become certified installers this would then provide a quick responsive service that will satisfy fire regulations and insurers. There will be more opportunities for skills development of the workforce as technology changes. We need to be adaptable and flexible to ensure we are ready and able to deliver these future requirements by being open to reskilling and upskilling. 6.0 Conclusion Building Services has had to adapt to many changes over recent years and has shown that it is able to be flexible and modify to all aspect of change. It is well known that when you are making changes, that it is important to have support from leaders, a good communication process and get employees engaged in the process. In 2026-27 Building Services aims to: • Reduce sickness levels across the service by a minimum of 10%
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Page 33 of 33 PUBLIC • Restructure the Stores section to reflect the on-going needs and changes of the business • Improve the KPIs across the emergency and U5 categories • Have a comprehensive transport strategy for the next 3-5 years • Increase the volume of works carried out for other departments of the Council Building Services has the support of the Elected Members and the Directorate to continue to provide the invaluable services that it delivers. However, it requires to think more strategically in the short, medium and long term to plan the future direction of the business. The three-year rolling business plan developed and updated by Building Services provides that annual scrutiny that can be updated to include future changes. The Business plan will be reported alongside the KPIs to the Finance and Resources Policy Board. Finances within Local Government remain challenging and will not get any easier in the future. We must ensure we are able to provide cost effective solutions that provide best value and the robust monitoring processes put in place are continuing to provide that evidence but have to also adapt and change going forward. By working closely with our colleagues across the Council we will be able to better identify potential savings and solutions. We need to ensure that we continue to develop and improve the productivity and service delivery to meet the key performance indicators and expectations of all of our stakeholders. This can only be done by ensuring we have robust measures in place. The Business plan sets out where we are at the present time and the developments that have to be realised to ensure we continue to progress and improve. The structure of Building Services has changed to be able to adapt to future changes as the business develops and modifies to future requirements. The staff are dedicated to succeeding and are a major part of the successful future changes that will be required. By continuing to encourage employee development at all levels and keeping open lines of communication we will ensure that we have the workforce and skills for the future. This Business Plan sets out where Building Services are currently in their development journey and a pathway to where they want to be over the next 3 years. There will be challenges as change is not an easy process, and there are risks in many areas that are not always within the control of Building Services, but Building Services is able to adapt and step up to those challenges and deliver successful outcomes.