The Building Podcast with Mark Wakeford

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The domestic sector has long been a target for successive UK Governments.  Wholesale modernisation of the UK housing stock would reduce its running costs, improve the health and wellbeing of the UK population, extend its life and reduce domestic carbon emissions.  Focus has often been on the supply side, with little attention paid to the fact that every single projec...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Construction’s heritage sector is booming.  As clients seek to avoid costly new-builds and the embodied carbon that demolish and re-build generate; buildings are getting a new lease of life.  This is particularly true in the heritage sector, working with buildings that were originally built pre-1919.  The loss of a generation of builders to the First World War, coupl...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome With political leaders around the world moving and changing at ever increasing speeds, businesses find themselves as one of the few constants in their communities.  This gives them opportunity to act in concert for changes that they believe will benefit their communities and meet their long-term business goals. Listen to Ben Tolhurst, a Director of Business Declares...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Farmland with high levels of organic carbon will be more resilient to periods of high or low rainfall and to greater swings in temperature.  Achieving this requires both the knowledge of what level of organic carbon exists in the soil and best practice farming methods.   Working in this way can help secure the food supplies that we need during times of climate stress...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome One of the biggest challenges of renewable energy generation is that it is intermittent, even when averaged out over a country.  This makes matching demand with supply, or vice-a-versa difficult.  Add to this the challenges of a warming climate that increase variability in wind and sun levels, then there is an opportunity for clever businesses to find a solution. Nig...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Nishant Kumar is the Vice-President and Head of Asset Management, Sustainability and Quality for Indian Independent Power Producer Ayana Renewable Power.  He is responsible for the performance of their generating assets, which supply businesses throughout India.  Nishant talks about his approach to maximising returns, which starts before a blow is struck on site.  Ay...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Andrew Birch, known to all as Birchy, has been promoting solar all his professional career.  He is now the Treasurer of the Global Solar Council (GSC), the trade body that represents all stakeholders involved in solar and storage, from all around the world, bringing his passion and expertise to promote the cheapest and most resilient energy available to mankind.  Lis...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The solar sector is comparatively young, with few institutions or standardisations.  Yet it is the world's fastest growing energy generator and will be vying for the top spot within the decade.  In order to take this prize, the sector must ensure that its installations are to the highest quality, delivered safely and that they provide a robust source of energy. ...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The seventh Carbon budget has just been accepted by the UK Government.  This tracks progress towards our net zero ambition by 2050 and is now a mandatory target.  Government will publish its plans to achieve this.  Construction and Energy sectors will have a huge role to play in delivering these intermediary targets, particularly as these sectors influence a massive...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Community Energy Schemes have been around for over a decade, providing access to energy investments to local communities.  They continue to gain in popularity and the movement continues to gain momentum as more and more organisations look to unlock the power of community engagement.  Sarah Burgess a freelance expert and director of Grand Union Community Energy Ltd ta...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Prof. Paul Behrens is the face chosen by The National Emergency Briefing to talk about food, land use and climate change.  There can be no one more suited to the job.  Paul is a British Academy Global Professor and works in the Oxford Martin School on sustainability, focusing on climate change, food and energy.   Paul’s messages are clear:  Change your diet, change y...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Finance is required for all projects, whether this is provided by the project sponsors or externally through one of many funding institutions.  Thankfully, money is the ultimate universal commodity, however, banks, development banks and other investors all have their own investment parameters and appetite to determine if, how and when a project is bankable and will r...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The Building Podcast is doing something different for its listeners and publicising one of those cancers that affects young men in their prime.  They will be making their way in life and think that they do not have time to stop and think about their health or the implications of illness!  Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged between 20 and 39, but...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Large scale solar seeks to change lives for the better, but many communities simply do not have the information or the expectation that they can discover balanced and intelligent knowledge to help them determine and make best value of a local development.   This is the role of the developer who seeks to win permission for a solar or battery development.  Communities...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Lt. General Richard Nugee CB, CVO, CBE is one of the ten experts who present peer reviewed papers as part of the National Emergency Briefing.  His experiences as a soldier inform his views on the implications of national security within the UK and his opinions carry weight.  On this podcast Richard explains the purpose of the National Emergency briefing and the reaso...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Global warming creates ill health, extra costs and inefficiencies across economies.  One challenge remains on who and how to take national policies and deliver them on the ground within real communities.  Enter the elected Mayors around the world.  Individuals who have been voted by their constituencies and put into leadership positions to help influence and steer th...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Coventry City Council has entered into a fifteen-year partnership with Eon to support its transition to a low carbon future.  The Partnership focuses on four key themes of clean energy, creating sustainable jobs and careers, supporting innovation and driving community benefits.  Partnering with Eon has allowed the City Council to focus on new and interesting ways to...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The Building Energy Management System (BEMS) is the central nervous system of any building.  It provides the intelligence to operate a building efficiently and effectively, whilst creating the optimum environment for its occupants.   A good BEMS can save 30% of a building's energy, reducing its carbon emissions and improve its EPC rating.  The first allows the o...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Australia has shown the world how to encourage homeowners to install solar and battery storage on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world.  With over 1.7KW per person and 5% of all eligible homes installing battery storage last year, Australia has lessons for all of us as they reduce the cost of electricity for all and create a more resilient energy supply. David...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Fraud accounts for 43% of all recorded crime and costs the UK around £1.3Bn each year and this figure continues to climb.  Kate Grove of the National Crime Agency talks through the extensive work of the agency, and the four Ps that they follow to reduce the impact on people and businesses.  Construction and energy sectors are a key target of fraudsters, given the lon...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Construction skills remain a challenge for the industry.  Construction is recruiting fewer new recruits, and our average age of tradesperson continues to increase.  Where and how is our sector going to find the people with the skills to provide a service?  The Government's solution for England is the ten Construction Technical Excellence Colleges scattered throu...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Community Energy is heralded as the best way to mobilise communities to develop and invest in their own energy schemes, the easiest being wind or solar.  A project starts with the germ of an idea and a group of keen and curious individuals who want to form the nucleus of a diverse team to bring cheaper and secure energy to a community.  Great British Energy is here t...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome GB Energy has been created to drive the renewable energy revolution through out the United Kingdom.  One element of this is the near £1Bn fund for 1,000 community energy schemes to be delivered nationally by 2030.  This fund will generate jobs, investment opportunities and cheaper and more resilient energy generation, where local communities can own and benefit from...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Government is planning for a £200 - £300Bn industry by 2030 and Agnes Wamagui is in the epicentre of this aspiration.  Agnes is the Knowledge Transfer Manager for Robots within Innovate UK, the Government’s agency for funding and promoting the best of British innovation.  She sits at the confluence of Government policy, university research, investors and industry, bo...

Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Companies often state that people are their biggest and most important asset.  The UK construction industry has the highest suicide rate of any sector, so we might argue that we are not looking after this asset at all well. Couple this with our high percentage of neuro- diverse employees and the latest statute, the Employments Rights Act 2025, employers must raise th...