Duty to report

Organisations with more than 500 employees and a turnover over £500 million are now required to report climate‐related financial information on an annual basis. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published guidance to help organisations understand how to meet the new requirement.

This is likely to impact many companies in the finishes and interiors sector supply chain.  Whilst most won’t be reporting, they will likely be under greater pressure to supply information and data to their larger clients. 

Plastic Packaging Tax

The UK Government has introduced the Plastic Packaging Tax.  This Tax came into force on 1st April 2022 and will be charged at a rate of £200 per tonne. The tax applies to ’packaging that contains more plastic by weight than any other single material’. However, packaging that contains at least 30% recycled plastic is exempt. For more details see the paper written by CPA here.

Need help complying, you can talk to the FIS Sustainability Champion on 0121 707 0077

Visit the FIS Sustainability Hub

The New Hospital Programme (NHP), which is developing 48 hospitals by 2030, has published the NHP Supplier Guide. The guide is aligned to the Construction Playbook and sets out what is important to the NHP ‐ better, faster and greener procurement ‐ and what it requires from its supply chain to realise the opportunities available. The guide, which will be updated regularly, follows publication of the first NHP commercial pipeline, which gives suppliers visibility of current and future contract opportunities on proposed projects up to 2024.

Commenting on the launch of the new Guide NHP Commercial Director, Emma-Jane Houghton stated:

“Traditionally each time we build a new hospital today, it’s effectively treated as a standalone scheme that fails to fully capture the opportunities to standardise design, leverage scale or foster long term sustainable growth within the UK supply chain.

The NHP represents a dramatic shift from traditional ways of hospital building. We have a unique opportunity to create an infrastructure ecosystem that transforms the way hospitals are designed, procured and constructed.

The scale of the New Hospital Programme will call upon the skills and expertise of companies of all sizes, across a broad range of sectors.

This is an opportunity for businesses to make long-term investments in their capabilities, create jobs, drive growth and help in delivering world-leading experiences for patients and staff. We need to bring the right people and the right teams together to foster innovation and deliver hospitals of the future That’s why we’re calling upon the knowledge and experience of the widest breadth of suppliers from construction components, medical equipment and beyond.”

You can download the NHP Supplier Guide here

The Government has released its British Energy Security Strategy with the aim of providing secure, clean and affordable energy for Great Britain. It sets out how the deployment of wind, nuclear, solar and hydrogen will be accelerated, which could see 95% of electricity being low carbon by 2030, whilst supporting the production of domestic oil and gas in the nearer term. Offering significant opportunities for construction, measures include planning reforms to cut the approval times for new offshore wind farms from four years to one year and a £120 million Future Nuclear Enabling Fund which could see eight new reactors built across Britain.

To help the industry reduce its reliance on diesel in line with the CO₂nstruct Zero target to eliminate 78% of diesel plant from sites by 2035, Build UK has published its ‘Drive Out Diesel’ guide which contains a range of tips to use less diesel, go alternative and use more electric plant and equipment on site.