Facilitate in focus

News

What we’ve reported on

All we can say is the outsourced services market is booming. We’ve covered news aplenty of contract wins across multiple services streams, including:

• Houston & Hawkes’ catering deal with VodafoneThree
• Cawley’s waste management deal with London Luton Airport
• Mitie’s IFM contract with Cumbria Consortium accord
• AJS’ hard services business with Lewisham Council

And on the subject of public sector contract wins, over the past few weeks, several FM companies secured lots on the Government Commercial Agency’s framework. Most recently it has been RFM and SBFM.

In the outsourcing sector generally we’re seeing some interesting changes to key personnel, note for example Theresa Bell’s promotion to chief executive at Arcus FM. 2027 is looking to be a very interesting year, with political impetus towards insourcing and an ever more agikle outsourcing sector.

What we’re working on

We’re now just days away from the print deadline for our November-December 2026 edition of Facilitate. Still buoyed by the IWFM Impact Awards, we’re eager to share our take on the emerging themes from the night. As always, we strive to present information to you in an engaging and original way, in this case by developing a composite ‘profile’ of the scheme’s individual category winners.

Many of you have no doubt expressed the sentiment that FM is all about people. Well, we’re putting that maxim to the test as we delve deep into the notion of human capital and how this intersects with natural capital. Consider it a solid blend of the philosophical, economic and practical.

Skills continue to be a focus for IWFM and Facilitate, and this fourth quarter has seen the topic raised across the political spectrum. Our upcoming feature on young people not in education, employment or training is a timely addition to the conversation as we hear from sector experts about FM’s power to empower others. Have we avoided a NEET pun in the headline? Not long now until you find out.

If you read one Facilitate piece…

Good news for corporate office FMs is that the UK remains EMEA’s most mature market for flexible office space – and demand for AI businesses, along with greater participation from commercial landlords driving reshaping the sector. 

Cushman & Wakefield’s research ranked the UK’s flexible office space maturity at 94%. France was the only other nation in the 90th percentile, coming in at 92%. Next on the list was the Netherlands at 82%.

As ever, you can find us at [email protected] or via LinkedIn for any suggestions you have for us to focus our future Facilitate activity.