Drive out ‘disinterested third’, says BESA chief 

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 required standard.

“It might seem counterintuitive for a membership organisation to do that but believe me it works. We now have more people waiting to join…membership needs to stand for something.”

Driving competence and compliance through supply chains was also seen as an important response to the procurement practices that continue to threaten the future of many specialist firms.

Following the conference, more than 500 members and guests celebrated the 2025 BESA Industry Awards. Almost 150 companies and individuals were recognised across 26 award categories, representing a 44% increase in entries compared with last year. This led BESA President Pete Curtis to hail the event as “a true celebration of the entire building engineering sector and its supply chains”.

A full list of award winners can be found here.