Now, one year in to our journey, we are publishing TFT’s first ever B Impact Report. This is our snapshot of 2023 from the perspective of the five B Corp impact pillars: Employees, Environment, Community, Customers and Governance.
Last year we celebrated our 50th birthday with two big announcements: we established TFT’s Employee Ownership Trust and we launched our in-house training and development platform to keep our team ahead of ever-advancing industry best practice.
But there has been so much more going on!
We continued to drive decarbonisation across the built environment with all our services. We aligned all our offices to rigorous environmental standards. We welcomed more graduate and placement roles into our team than ever before. We became B Corp advocates with one-to-one support for clients and industry peers, as well as joining industry debate on certification and what it all means. We campaigned for better policies from government to support Net Zero Carbon goals. Our team published industry guidance for Whole Life Carbon management across the building lifecycle. And we supported national and local charities with our time, resources and financial support.
All of these achievements, and more, are steps on our sustainable growth journey. We look forward to more progress still to come, and hope you’ll join us along the way!
Check out our full report via the link below.
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TFT CPD sessions: Sustainable due diligence: the right data at the right time for transactions
Today’s buildings face tough challenges from market expectations, sustainability commitments and ESG objectives. What needs to be done to make these existing assets more valuable today and more resilient for tomorrow?
On November 28th, TFT kicked off its latest knowledge-sharing session on this topic. We held ‘Decarbonisation: the future for today’s buildings’ at RSA House; and featured three panel sessions combining expert advisors from the TFT team with project partners and client guests to bring multiple perspectives to the conversation.
The morning began with a look at commercial real estate acquisitions; a time-sensitive and often high-stakes process in which purchasers need to see the opportunities and challenges posed by a given asset, and vendors need to present a clear case to the market.
Panel overview:
Our panel for ‘Sustainable due diligence: the right data at the right time for transactions’ discussed the importance of understanding an asset’s sustainable credentials and potential within the typically tight timelines of a real estate transaction.
Jay began by talking through the changing nature of building acquisitions and the need for a clearer understanding of a building’s sustainable potential. He noted how Technical Due Diligence (TDD) reports have evolved from mere snapshots of a building’s physical state to become templates or roadmaps for post-acquisition improvement works.
From Feldberg Capital’s perspective, Jon explained how TFT reports guide investor requirements, underwrite sustainability targets, insurance policies, and building performance improvements. The insights they contain help to plan the route to an ideal exit point for an owner.
Feldberg’s goal is to improve assets to the point where its future sale is de-risked for a prospective purchaser, allowing them to command the best returns. With that goal in mind, TDD reports must get under the skin of an asset.
But how much depth can one achieve in just a few days?
Though TDD reports need better data, Neil Granger highlighted the tension between quality research and the time constraints of a transaction, asking: “What is an acceptable level of risk – in financial terms – of having the wrong data? Can you quantify that and factor it in to your transaction timelines?” Neil’s view on the dilemma? “I don’t think the benefits of speed outweigh the long-term risk of bad data”.
Some insight can be achieved with modelling and gap analysis, but when benchmark data can be so wide of the mark for many buildings, it can be a risky approach.
From a client’s perspective, Jon described more data limitations impacting acquisitions, particularly around energy use when most buildings do not have metered usage data. Leasing information also emerged as a significant challenge, as a building’s occupation impacts future refurbishment possibilities. Removal of information silos and better communication can lead to teams identifying opportunities such as being more creative with short term leases or decant, without the need for full vacant possession. These can only be determined by looking at accurate data ahead of time.
Digital twins could address these challenges, our panel agreed. But can they do so today? That seems less likely, given the reality of implementing them across smaller, existing buildings. But as with all technology, such as digital data capture, this should improve over time.
The panel found more optimism in the trend towards sustainability certification and Science-Based Targets – which Feldberg Capital already has in place. These standards require demonstrable performance data and will drive building owners and occupiers to provide better data as a matter of course.
The final piece in the puzzle is to bring more specialists together as part of a sustainability-led approach to TDD. More technical advice on the available data, as well as to identify the ‘unknowns’ of an asset, are essential to realise the value of a building and set it up for a programme of sustainable improvements after purchase.
TFT CPD sessions: Holbein Gardens: reducing embodied carbon from design to delivery
On November 29th at RSA House in London, TFT hosted its ‘Decarbonisation: the future for tomorrow’s buildings’ session, inviting over 100 clients and industry partners to learn and share their views on one of our industry’s biggest challenges.
You can find the write up of our first session of the morning, on gathering and using sustainability data in the course of property transactions.
Session two was a case study discussion about Holbein Gardens, a landmark refurbishment for our client Grosvenor.
Holbein Gardens was transformed from being a tired 1980s office building into a sustainable asset and a pioneering case study for low embodied carbon (even exceeding LETI’s pioneer standards). The sustainable development brief which TFT co-created with Grosvenor set the stage for this work, encompassing themes such as climate resilience, social benefit, connectivity, green spaces, resource use and more.
But how was this brief taken forward into the design?
Pradumn outlined specific interventions at Holbein Gardens, emphasizing a holistic approach for the building, from a blue roof for sustainable drainage, to openable windows connected to air quality sensors, the use of lime plaster with low VOCs, and the reuse of raised access floors and materials with high recycled content.
The discussion then delved into circularity, with a focus on the reuse of structural steel. Mat and Pradumn highlighted the importance of a hierarchical approach at the outset of these works, focussing first on retaining existing materials, reusing onsite or offsite, and recycling the remaining materials.
For Holbein Gardens, another Grosvenor site in Bermondsey was identified as a potential location to extract steel from. HTS visited the site, identified the steels that could reused and tagged them. These got dismantled and sent up to Cleveland Steel to be tested, cut and made ready for Holbein Gardens.
In turn, there was also some steel in the former roof of Holbein Gardens which went through a similar process, and some of that found a new lease of life forming new risers in the building.
And Holbein Gardens steel ended up on yet another project, forming the new roof works at Fivefields (a recent project Barr Gazetas completed for Grosvenor).
One of the greatest challenges facing re-use is storage. For portfolio owners like Grosvenor, the ambition to reuse significant amounts of steel was made possible by having other sites to provide it. For those who don’t have that availability, they need to engage with providers like Cleveland Steel (part of the Holbein Gardens project team) to determine what is available or might soon become available.
From re-use of old materials, to embracing newer materials. Mat and Pradumn explored the use of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) on Holbein Gardens, emphasizing Grosvenor’s openness to an explorative approach. The commitment to CLT at an early project stage set the ambition for the scheme, while the reduced scale of CLT within building and supplementary measures like sprinkler systems helped insurance appetite for the building.
Mat underscored the need for scaling up the use of CLT in the industry, acknowledging challenges such as fire safety concerns. Despite the challenges, both panellists were optimistic that industry initiatives, exemplar projects like Holbein Gardens, and wider industry understanding would contribute to wider CLT adoption.
The session concluded with lessons learned from Holbein Gardens, emphasizing the importance of awareness, openness to re-use aesthetics, proper due diligence on available materials, and the potential for a network to facilitate developers in embracing re-use practices.
Every step forwards on these matters will help more buildings find a new lease of life and drive down our industry’s huge embodied carbon load.
TFT CPD sessions: Scaling success: from pioneer project to business-as-usual
In securing a better future for today’s buildings, we need to push the standards of best practice or pioneering achievements, while also sharing knowledge and learning together to raise the standards of ‘business-as-usual’.
That was the topic of our third session on ‘Decarbonisation: the future for today’s buildings’, which brought together over 100 clients and industry partners to learn and share their views on one of our industry’s biggest challenges.
In case you missed our previous write-ups, have a look at:
Together, they took different approaches to the discussion on continual improvement and knowledge-sharing, from the in-house client perspective to the project team and the consultants’ view.
As a major investor, with a mantra of ‘inclusive capitalism’, how does L&G approach knowledge-sharing among its development and asset management team?
Nida kicked off by explaining 3 pillars to strategy for continual improvement.
First was the importance of understanding the need for both large and smaller interventions, advancements and instances of best practice. For an organisation like L&G, applying each progressive success more widely is a practical way to make real and consistent progress. This is applicable to our industry as a whole: focus not only on high-performing but highly-demanding new developments; and take every opportunity to upgrade existing stock too.
The second and third pillars both relate to breaking down siloes. Externally, L&G processes like project sign-off gateways and annual team conferences establish continual feedback loops between their project teams; and help share L&G’s vision, culture and objectives. Internally, L&G’s centralised sustainability team provides strategic direction to its asset management and development teams, setting common goals and helping teams to share learnings from one workstream to support others.
While some clients have systems like these in place, many do not. And as Martin noted, often a project team’s culture will dictate whether or not consistent progress is made against a client’s brief, as some sustainability accreditations are incompatible when you get down to the detail; you need a project team who can review, explain and come up with the best pragmatic response to the site constraints.
TFT supported L&G on its refurbishment of Unit 4, Watchmoor Point, turning a tired warehouse asset into a leading example of a net zero carbon industrial building. The project succeeded by using the philosophy of cumulative improvements and detailed interventions across every aspect of the works. By sharing the learnings of that project more widely, L&G has followed Watchmore Point with a series of projects which build on its success and scale those learnings up into a business-as-usual process.
It was only fair for Nida to turn the question back to Martin and Jacqui, asking them about TFT’s approach to knowledge sharing within its team.
Jacqui echoed Nida’s points about making cumulative improvements and being proactive about sharing data and bringing teams together under a common goal. As a B Corp, TFT’s services and business operations are directed towards maximum positive impacts, which follows our own trend towards blending sustainability strongly through all our work.
That might include launching new hybrid services like Green Dilapidations, or applying a more dedicated specialist input to processes like TDD (see session 1). But it also involves challenging clients and inviting pilot studies to try new things, such as engaging clients with a new approach to planned maintenance management, where the industry norm is still to replace products like-for-like with little consideration for decarbonisation and efficiency along the way.
What would each panellist have you take from the session?
Nida emphasised the need for regular feedback and communication links between client sustainability and development leads and those technical experts and project delivery teams implementing technology. This joined up communication enables innovations to be rapidly assessed, adopted and rolled out as business as usual on a larger scale.
Martin encouraged the audience to think big, stand out, and bring in new perspectives to see how ‘boring’ projects can be an opportunity to make progress and do something different you can learn from…
Jacqui wrapped up the session with a call on everybody to rethink standard practice, and understand that every stage of the building lifecycle presents an opportunity for decarbonisation and improvement.
This is very much the idea behind our conference – finding new ways to unlock progress on decarbonising existing buildings. The challenges remain, but will progress with combined effort and commitment to share knowledge as we go.
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If you missed these sessions and would like to know more about any of the topics discussed, please contact info@tftconsultants.com, and we will put you in touch with the right people to continue the conversation.
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Is ‘Gill v Lees News’ a thorn in the side for tenants?
Tenants wanting to renew their leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, in circumstances where their landlords may wish to object to that statutory right, probably now face a new and potentially onerous hurdle.
Gill v Lees News Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 1178 established that minor disrepair during the lease term, even if subsequently remedied, can be a factor taken into account by the court when deciding whether a new lease ought not be granted.
Here’s what tenants and landlords can take from the case:
Tenants:
If you think you might want to renew your lease in the future, then consider the state of repair of the premises now and on an on-going basis.
Take steps to remedy any existing disrepair.
Consider a programme of planned maintenance to ensure the risk of future disrepair is minimised
Consider services installations as well as building fabric
Enter into service contracts for the services installations
Keep records of service and maintenance expenditure
Don’t encourage your landlord to inspect any existing disrepair at the premises!
If your landlord does identify disrepair, remedy it quickly and effectively and be able to show a future court that you have done so
Landlords:
Inspect premises frequently to identify and record disrepair
Notify tenants of disrepair, potentially via an interim schedule of dilapidations
If the tenant does not react to an interim schedule of dilapidations then consider a repairs notice (a Jervis v Harris notice) to show the future court how unwilling the tenant was to comply with its repair obligations
Keep records of non-compliance
Are you affected by these changes? Do you need advice on taking the right next steps for your landlord, or tenant?
Dominic is TFT’s Director of CDM Services and is responsible for managing the team of CDM consultants at the London office in the delivery of CDM Principal Designer, Principal Designer Advisor and Client CDM Advisor services to support Clients, Developers and Designers in compliance with the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015. He has a background in managing CDM teams at multi-disciplinary consultancies, where he has worked alongside colleagues in architecture, engineering, project management and surveying.
As a full Member of the Chartered Institute of Building, he is a multi-skilled construction professional and CDM consultant, qualified in construction, occupational health and safety, fire safety and building safety. He is an advocate for building safety and has supported his teams and Clients in preparation for the introduction of the Building Safety Act and its secondary legislation.
Dominic’s experience spans a range of sectors including residential, commercial real estate, aviation, infrastructure, modular construction, demolition, refurbishment and conversion works, and remedial works including fire safety remedials and recladding.
I live in West London, but I’m originally from Saltcoats, a small seaside town on the west coast of Scotland, which on a clear day has some of the best views of the coast and the Isle of Arran you could imagine… although the Scottish weather means those clear days are few and far between!
Outside of work I enjoy sports: running and badminton being my latest hobbies and keep me busy, and just about keep me fit! West London, in particular the riverside along Hammersmith, is a great place for running outdoors. I also love going to the cinema – I’m not a cultured film buff, I’ll just watch absolutely anything, even the bad films can be entertaining.
I love travelling and recent years have been fortunate to travel to New York, across Italy and weekend breaks to various cities in Europe. My favourite part of travelling by far, is trying the authentic local foods in each country and city that you just can’t get replicated anywhere else. Food is my greatest passion, I just need to balance it with the running to keep the pounds off!
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Associate Building Surveyor / Project Manager Bristol
An excellent opportunity for an Associate Chartered Building Surveyor, with a contract administration/project management focus, to play a key part in the commercial building surveying team providing high calibre professional advice to clients.
You will be part of a flexible and very supportive environment with great opportunities for career progression.
Key accountabilities
Primarily working within the commercial sector, undertaking all round building surveying work including the following, and with an opportunity to focus on project management:
Project Management and Contract Administration on a range of sectors.
Project Monitoring
Technical Due Diligence
General building surveying commercial work.
Performance criteria
MRICS with minimum 4 years PQE
Degree in Building Surveying
Excellent report writing skills
Expertise in general building surveying i.e. contract administration, technical due diligence and dilapidations
Experience of working in a proactive commercial environment
Sound knowledge of building contracts in a commercial context
Able to meet fee targets and generate new business through building successful client relationships
Commercial awareness and understanding
Embraces technology to deliver reports efficiently
High level of up to date technical building knowledge
Skills and behaviour
Must be a good team player, but also able to work independently
Confident and concise communicator both verbally and in writing
Commercially focused
Able to contribute to wider business development
Participative in team/organisational events
Package indicators
Hybrid & flexible working (3 days a week in the office)
Competitive salary and car allowance
Benefits: Fee Plus bonus scheme, mobile phone & laptop, Personal Accident cover, Private Health Care (after 12 months), Life Assurance and 25 days holiday
Season Ticket Loan, Cycle scheme and access to company pension scheme on completion of probationary period
About TFT
TFT is the leading independent firm of Development, Built Asset & Engineering and Sustainability consultants. We place the wellbeing of people and the performance of buildings at the heart of everything we do.
We’re proud of our reputation for integrity and delivering work of the highest quality, blended with commercial pragmatism. We offer a strong track record across all commercial property sectors, advising investors, developers, occupiers and owners on maximising best property asset values. Diversity and strength in depth is important to us. Whether it be a technical thought leader with a career’s experience – or a recently qualified rising star – in today’s risk averse world you need people on your side with a reputation for diligence, transparency, intellect and commercial insight. Clients see TFT as large enough to provide the expertise and resources to get the best from their portfolios, and small enough for it to matter personally.
We have over 175 employees operating from a network of offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Guildford, London, Leeds, Manchester and Southampton.
We are BCorp Certified!
As TFT’s impact on the world has grown with the size of our business and the scale of our client services, we are determined that our future growth continues to be positive and sustainable. B Corp certification enables us to do just that, by recognising the highest standards of social and environmental performance and aligning our ongoing efforts with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.tftconsultants.com/tft-is-a-certified-b-corp/
DEI at TFT
At TFT we don’t aim to tick boxes and count numbers and percentages, we create an environment where anyone, from any background and life experience, can do their best work. We empower you to bring your full, authentic self to work. We are diverse by nature and inclusive by choice.
If you’re driven to perform, you’ll fit right in, we approach work fearlessly, learn quickly and improve constantly. A bright idea can come from anyone. We believe diversity drives innovation
Our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion is simple – we embrace everyone. We wouldn’t approach a building survey in a one-dimensional way, so we don’t our people.
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TFT establishes an Employee Ownership Trust
TFT has become an employee-owned business, having established its Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) following 19 years as a Partnership (LLP).
The change to EOT status marks TFT’s 50th year and comes with two commitments for the future: to share ownership and benefit for the whole TFT team, and to deliver on the firm’s values without external conflict or compromise.
The news follows TFT’s B Corp certification in December 2022. An ownership structure for shared benefit is part of TFT’s continual progression towards its B Corp goals: improving business performance, accountability and transparency.
As part of the new corporate structure, TFT Partners are now Senior Directors of the company, and take the same ownership status as all employees to share equally in the firm’s success via its Trust.
TFT’s leadership remains unchanged, but take C-Suite titles, with Alistair Allison remaining CEO, Alan Pemberton as Chair, Dan Henn as Chief Growth Officer, Seth Love-Jones as Chief Operations Officer and Mat Lown as Chief Knowledge & ESG Officer.
The decision is significant to TFT’s future, as CEO Alistair Allison says:
“The Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is real milestone for us, allowing the team to share equally in TFT’s success and future growth. It also means that our long-term commitments – to our team’s security, our clients’ quality of work, and our wider ambition to create a better built environment – are protected from possible external conflict.
“TFT has enjoyed a long life of independence which has become one of our defining assets. Our previous Partnership structure was crucial to preserve that independence. The Partnership has also made for a smooth transition to the EOT, which brings additional reassurance for our team and our clients that we will be independent for a long time to come.
“We continue to invest in long-term progress, resilience and sustainability. In recent years that has meant innovating our services and broadening our expertise to accelerate decarbonisation. While the challenges of the coming decades are less clear, our team’s ideas, skills and passion will be essential to meet them, and the EOT structure can empower more ideas and perspectives on our future.
“As we celebrate reaching 50 years in business, we continue to evaluate our role in the decades to come. How should TFT benefit our team, our clients, our industry and the wider world? We all have a long way to go in improving our positive impacts on the future. This shared ownership structure is the best way to remain focused on those goals without conflict or compromise.”
Alistair Allison, CEO, TFT
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Staff Stories – Louis Junior Maycock
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Mill Road, Cambridge
The property is a retail building on a high street in Cambridge. TFT provided dilapidations advice and negotiation services to support the occupier in relocating from the premises. The occupier had previously held a 15 year lease and left the premises following a strip out project.
Our approach to dilapidations is to start with the facts and not deviate from them. Our team looked and assessed the condition before the lease was signed and used this as a basis for assessing the repairing liability. As this unit had a retail occupier, the tenants’ alterations played a major part and agreeing the extent of alterations was pivotal.
We were able to agree an exit with the landlord in a timely manner and to the satisfaction of the client. This approach allowed our client to focus on other interests. On behalf of the client, TFT agreed a settlement at 53% of the initial claim. The project also presented an opportunity to move away from the existing gas supply to a fully electric HVAC system. The system supported the occupiers net zero commitments, and the project reached an EPC of ‘B’ with 38 points.
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