The Preferred Partners network came together once again for our 18th roundtable event, bringing another fantastic group of businesses into the room to connect, learn, and collaborate. As always, the spirit of the network, Facilitating Partnerships, Creating Connections, and Building Collaboration, was evident throughout. These events are designed to give partners space to share experiences, understand emerging industry challenges, and explore opportunities to work together. This session was no exception, offering insightful discussion, expert knowledge, and a renewed sense of shared purpose.
Exploring Sustainability in the Built Environment
We were delighted to welcome Paul Bainbridge and Charlie Myers, Technical Director Business Development Manager respectively at The FES Group, as this month’s speakers. The FES Group specialise in sustainability and overheating within the built environment, making Paul’s insight particularly relevant for many of the businesses around the table.
Paul provided an engaging overview of the changing landscape of building regulations, the increasing expectations around carbon and energy performance, and the journey towards the Future Homes Standard. While touching on technical detail to provide context, Paul focused more on what these upcoming changes mean in practice, how they affect developers, designers, contractors, and consultants alike, and the opportunities they create for organisations who are already thinking ahead.
His session reinforced just how quickly the sustainability agenda is evolving and sparked thoughtful questions from our partners.
An Open Forum for Real Industry Challenges
Following the presentation, the Q&A naturally developed into a wider open forum, allowing partners to share their own experiences of navigating sustainability in the current climate. A recurring theme was the challenge posed by planning constraints, cost pressures, and client expectations, all of which can limit the ability to introduce more sustainable or innovative solutions.
This honest exchange reflected the value of the network, businesses at various stages of the development and construction process coming together to problem solve, support, and understand one another’s constraints and opportunities. It was a constructive conversation that highlighted both the realities of the industry today and the shared determination to keep pushing forward.
The discussion also revisited an important topic from earlier this year, the Real Living Wage. After hearing from the David Van der Velde from the Living Wage Foundation at our April roundtable, there is clearly a growing commitment within the network to explore accreditation. We’re delighted that, since our event, Sweco, a Preferred Partner with over 20,000 employees across Europe, has achieved Real Living Wage Employer status. Many partners in the room shared that they already pay their teams the Real Living Wage, and several expressed enthusiasm about taking the next step.
Building Collaboration
One of the most positive outcomes of the session was the conversation around partnering on tender opportunities. A number of businesses expressed interest in collaborating on bids, combining expertise and strengthening their collective offering. Seeing the roots of future partnerships take shape in real time was a standout moment and demonstrated what Preferred Partners was created for, local businesses actively working together to create new opportunities.
Looking Ahead To The 2026 Preferred Partners Brochure
To close the session, we were delighted to share that, following the success of our 2025 Preferred Partners Brochure, we will be producing a 2026 edition. The brochure remains a valuable tool for showcasing the skills and specialisms within our network, and we look forward to building on the momentum of this year’s publication.
