Last Autumn, the UK Government launched its Brownfield Release Fund – £68million to go directly to 54 councils to turn neglected land into new homes. But even with this in place, the headache of tackling contaminated sites and making infrastructure improvements remains before new homes can be built.
In the May 2025 issue of Local Authority Building and Maintenance (LABM) magazine, MD of BGS Utilities Jonathan Hopkins, talked readers through the process.
Read the full article here.
March 8th is International Women’s Day and this year utility infrastructure specialist BGS, pledged to donate £10 to Warrington Women’s Aid for every supporting comment it received on the professional networking platform, LinkedIn.
The idea was suggested by Financial Controller, Michelle Atherton to simply ask BGS’ network to comment on what they were doing to recognise International Women’s Day, and in return the Company would pledge its support as part of IWD Giving campaign.
Michelle said: “While International Women’s Day operates on a global scale, I wanted to see what we could do to support women in our local area. We have a strong network on LinkedIn, so it was easy to just ask people to show their support and raise awareness at the same time.
“We work in a male-dominated environment, but firmly believe in recruiting the right people into our business based on skill set and suitability for a role, regardless of gender, ethnicity or cultural background. International Women’s Day is all about accelerating action for gender quality and that’s a positive association for our Company to have.”
As a result of BGS’ posts attracting 30 comments from across its network, the Company has now proudly donated £300 to support the Warrington branch of Women’s Aid – the national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children
International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated annually on March 8, honours the achievements of women across all aspects of life – social, economic, cultural, and political – while also advocating for gender equality. It provides an important platform to engage with communities, reflect on progress, and commit to positive action and is marked by groups worldwide in a wide variety of ways.
BGS Utilities unlocked the door to its future today, opening a second office to house its growing utility infrastructure team.
The new working space is on Birchwood Park, Warrington where the utilities specialist has been operating for more than a decade. It will be home to its construction teams as well as providing private office facilities and collaboration areas to support group working.
The need for a second office was triggered following a recent recruitment drive where over the past six months, BGS Utilities has grown its employee base by more than 15%. The new team members have been brought in to support recent contract wins across both the industrial and commercial, and housebuilding sectors.
Jon Hopkins, BGS Utilities Managing Director, said: “This increase in office space is well overdue. We’ve been ready to have a second office for some time now, but due to the number of new employees we’ve recruited across all areas of our business over the past few months, we needed to branch out.”
BGS’ original office at Lovell House will now become its Head Office, supporting administrative functions, tendering and business development; with its new office focussing entirely on the operational delivery arm of the business.
BGS Utilities has been awarded Gold Member status with construction procurement and compliance platform, Constructionline.
Used by the construction industry in the UK, the Constructionline database is accessed by more than 2000 organisations who require companies to be accredited before beginning the tender process. BGS previously held Silver Membership but chose to apply for Gold to meet the higher levels of competence required by an increasing number of its clients.
Jonathan Hopkins, BGS Managing Director, said: “We’re proud of this award because it rubber stamps how we operate as a supply chain partner. It’s also well-deserved recognition for our team who work so hard to keep our standards high, and continue to deliver for our customers.”
To achieve Gold Membership, BGS was assessed on areas such as environmental management, quality management, equalities and diversity. And with the Award now under its belt, BGS can demonstrate to buyers how it measures up in terms of governance and risk management, allowing it to bid for and win more work.
Jonathan continued: “We have ambitious plans for growth and as we start to build relationships with more Main Contractors and Developers, our credibility through the Constructonline platform will be critical. Up until now we’ve always ensured we have the right compliance certificates in place, but as we move forward, I hope Constructonline Gold will be the first of many awards which demonstrate how we’re raising the bar on our operational standards.”
In its January 2025 issue, Housing Industry Leaders (HIL) magazine asked if 2025 would be the year of sustainable progress in the housebuilding sector. Amongst other contributors from across the industry, BGS MD Jonathan Hopkins commented: “A prediction we can safely make for 2025 is the gas boiler ban won’t be in play.
“It’s now suggested to be set for 2027 as part of updates to the Future Homes Standard – though with no clear guidance in place, the advice we’d give to housebuilders for the year ahead is to talk to their utility infrastructure provider about how they can future-proof their development.
“Low voltage (LV) networks can be designed with additional capacity to switch to heat pumps if required for example; an option currently being considered as one of the most viable alternative solutions.”
Read the full article here.
Team members at BGS Utilities Warrington HQ were spreading some Christmas cheer today with their seasonal sweaters and tinsel tailoring to raise money for Save the Children.
Supporting the Christmas Jumper Day event which is now recognised annually throughout the UK, employees of the utility infrastructure provider, donated via a dedicated JustGiving page in return for wearing their jolly jumpers to the office.
While wearing festive fashion may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the star of the day was without doubt Samson (BGS’ four-legged friend) who paws down, won the prize for best in show.
BGS Managing Director, Jonathan Hopkins, said: “We haven’t supported this fundraiser before so it was a bit of fun for the office. Some of us got more into the spirit than others, but most importantly, we raised some money for Save the Children.”
BGS Utilities scored top marks this week in its three-yearly NERS, GIRS and WIRS audits under the Lloyds Registration Scheme.
Relating to electricity, gas and water respectively, these accreditations are what a utility-infrastructure provider such as BGS needs to be able to design, install and connect new utility networks.
Over the course of the last week, BGS’ work was assessed across several live projects by an independent auditor. Practices were reviewed according to a standard set of measurements which scrutinised processes, practices and the competence of operational staff. The results of these audits were the reported back to the business
Jonathan Hopkins, BGS Utilities Managing Director, said: “We were really please to get top marks across the board for NERS, GIRS and WIRS – though we never take it for granted. We prioritise safety every day and we work hard to keep our standards high, but these audits take place for good reason and we need to pass them to stay in business.”
BGS first gained its GIRS and WIRS accreditations in 2016 and NERS in 2018. Since then the Company has gone on to develop its portfolio across the industrial and commercial, and housebuilding sectors. The maintenance of these certifications is critical to its daily operations and future success.