The cleaning industry left looking for answers after Building Futures Group closure

The sudden demise of The Building Futures Group has left people in the industry not only saddened and shocked, but also mystified, as the organisation had given no indication it was in trouble.

BFG made the announcement with a brief press release on 14th Jan, saying it had ceased trading after ‘two successful years’, but offered no explanation as to why the end had come now.

Their statement has led to some confusion as it gave the impression the company was thriving when in fact the opposite was true.

The BCC is now calling for the organisation to give a full and frank assessment of what went wrong, so lessons can be learned for the future, and help offered to those that have been affected by the shut-down.

There is no option to contact the organisation through its website, as the content from both BFG’s and Asset Skills sites has been removed.

A lot of people in the industry have been affected by BFG’s sudden collapse. Asset Skills was a well established training organisation before the merger. Also lost is Upkeep, a charity that trained young people about building maintenance, and there is no word also about the Young Managers Forum.

The Building Futures Group was formed in April 2014 from Asset Skills and the Facilities Management Association. At the time, Chief Executive, Sarah Bentley, said; ‘the industry lacked a consolidated, industry voice… BFG will provide a platform that has been badly missing.’

But although the new company started brightly enough, no platform was established, and now industry professionals are left pondering some unanswered questions.

Stan Atkins, CEO of BICSc and Deputy Chairman of the BCC said: “The demise of BFG leaves a number of unanswered questions. It re-enforces the view that public money used by the Government has to be allocated by the agency with a knowledge of the industry involved. We need to understand what lessons can be learned from this”.