24 November 2025
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Heat Pumps Today attended the BESA Annual Conference 2025, held at The Brewery London on the 16th October.
As a media partner, we are keen to support the BESA Annual Conference as it brings together key players such as contractors, specifiers, engineers and more; to discuss some of the most thought-provoking topics affecting the sector.
The theme for 2025 was about the Race to the Top and included topics such as Net Zero, AI, Technology, Building Safety and more.
Drive out ‘disinterested third’, says BESA chief executive
A third of people in construction and its related disciplines are not interested in making the industry better, safer and more sustainable so should be driven out, according to Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) CEO David Frise.
Speaking at the Association’s annual conference, Frise said one third were highly professional, competent and compliant with legislation and best practice, the next third wanted to reach that standard and just needed help to get there, but the rest “simply don’t care”.
“We can try to drag them up…or drive them out of the industry,” he told the 300 delegates gathered at The Brewery in London. “Just doing enough is not good enough. We need to take control and change the things we can change so we can have a better industry, but to get there we need competent people”.
BESA launched its Member Pledge initiative during the conference with several prominent members signing an agreement to put competence and compliance at the heart of their operations and encourage their supply chains to do the same.
Frise said this would create a powerful incentive for clients to specify BESA members because of their ability to prove their competence through the Association’s technical audit process. He pointed to the fact that the Association expelled 14 members earlier this year for failing to reach the standard required.
BESA celebrates winners
Almost 150 companies and individuals were recognised across 26 award categories. As a judge and media partner of this event, Juliet Loiselle, Publisher of Heat Pumps Today, ACR Journal and Renewable Energy Installer was proud to present the Supplier of the Year Award 2025 to Gripple.
The Awards Dinner and after party sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric, were held at the historic Brewery, Chiswell Street, London and followed the Association’s Annual Conference at the same venue earlier in the day.
The event was hosted by celebrity magician Ben Hanlin and celebrated the people and companies deemed to have gone “above and beyond the call of duty” for the greater good of the industry. Categories covered the full supply chain from manufacturers and distributors though contractors, engineers, and clients, and reflected the industry’s efforts to get to grips with today’s big issues like competence and compliance, indoor air quality, and decarbonisation.
The finalists in this year’s WorldSkills UK competition (Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump category) sponsored by BAXI were guests of honour at the dinner. BESA is the organising partner of the competition, which celebrates both emerging and existing technical skills.
Apprentices and young engineers from right across the industry were also out in force with their talents showcased in a series of awards including the Rising Star of the Year sponsored by Tilbury Douglas. There was the usual wide range of specialist apprentice categories culminating in the overall Apprentice of the Year sponsored by Gratte Brothers Group.
