New regulations plus a different political landscape for us to contend with…
As I write this, we enter an important week for everyone in the UK and it’s anyone’s guess as to who may be forming a government over next weekend. In the meantime, life goes on and we concentrate on running our businesses to the best of our ability – and in the hope that politics don’t interfere with the business of making money.
It seems that new legislation or regulation is becoming so regular that there is something new for us to look at, and absorb, on a fortnightly basis. And what is it this time? Health and Safety. While anything that makes life and the working environment safer, taking on board any new regulation – understanding it, passing the information to those who require it and applying it – is time consuming and not always completely clear. It is for this reason that, with the arrival of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, courses are springing up from every quarter to help you understand what this new regulation will mean to your business. It’s interesting that while trawling the net for information I kept stumbling over the advertisements for these courses rather than actually getting information about the regulation! While the new legislation is designed to simplify health and safety requirements, it is now important that clients understand that the liability has moved towards them and they will need to change their policies and practices.
And back to the election. It will be an extremely difficult task for any organisation to plan for the post-election outcome and the GGF has been quick to recognise this and has formulated a ‘clear and viable political PR/lobbying plan that will raise the GGF Members’ concerns to whichever political party (or parties) forms the Government.’ Nigel Rees, GGF Group Chief Executive commented, “Firstly, no matter what form the next Government takes, our plan is to ensure our voice is heard and that we continue to engage with the key influencers and decision makers. For over five years, we have worked hard to take our campaign messages directly to cabinet ministers, government departments and officials. This will remain our priority.” It will not be an easy task to get the voice of our industry heard amongst the inevitable politics of the months to come.
