Reading about the restoration of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for SME housebuilders in the light of a new government and my thoughts turned to a radio station in Vauxhall, South London, which puts a lot of the S into SME. But these small, in many cases very small, builders rarely get a voice at the boardroom table when it comes to national politics and what their industry needs.
But, wow, do they have a voice of their own, thanks to the creation of Fix Radio, a national radio station dedicated exclusively to tradespeople working on sites and in people’s homes – bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, roofers, plasterers, scaffolders, painters. If you work on the tools, you should be listening, and over 600,000 a week already are, to this wonderfully engaging radio station.
The majority of housebuilders and the supply chain reading Show House magazine are delivering significant schemes and will have policies in place, health & safety or otherwise, which means radios blaring or AirPods streaming are unlikely to feature as onsite entertainment.
But Fix Radio does remind us that this industry ranges from one man or woman and a van to £6billion behemoths. Motivations and ambitions may be different, but they all have livings to earn, regulations to adhere to and standards to meet, whether statutory or simply personal pride.
Like so many of the best businesses, Fix Radio started as a response to an issue experienced. Founder and CEO, Louis Timpany, was working on a building site aged 22, working out what to do after Leeds University and looking at jobs in finance, when he realised how important the radio was, but equally how tedious repetitive songs and ads were for all-day audiences.
An idea was pitched to investors and Fix Radio: The Builders Station hit the air in 2017. Its first song: Starship’s We Built this City. Fix Radio is rock and roll in a hard hat, with advertisers marketing building products and services drawn to its highly targeted audience, both entertained and informed.
There is plenty of banter and breakfast – Fix Radio delivers loads of bacon butties to building sites – together with programmes such as The Carpentry Show and The Heating & Plumbing Show. But Fix also addresses key issues such as industry trends, mental health and the skills shortage. This summer sees the launch of FixFest, with Dizzee Rascal headlining. Expect banging tunes ‘bringing the trade together’.
You suspect the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for SME Housebuilders might be a little more sedate, if no less important. It had to be dissolved and then restored in the light of the General Election. At its inaugural meeting, Sarah Edwards, Labour MP for Tamworth, was appointed new chair and Close Brothers Property Finance has become the first industry partner to sign up to the APPG.
The Group is a dedicated forum for MPs, peers, industry leaders and policymakers to address the challenges facing small and medium-sized housebuilders, not to mention how on earth to get anywhere near the 1.5m new homes target in this parliamentary term. The APPG will look to build on successful previous initiatives such as the I Am a Housebuilder programme, which has provided mentorship and support for women entering the industry.
Fix Radio listeners are probably more concerned with tool theft than reforming the planning system, but Fix has also partnered with the CITB and Go Construct to help train, develop and grow the industry workforce and futureproof careers. Innovation and sustainability should apply whoever you are and whatever you are building.
It also has the Fix Radio Foundation to support tradespeople and their families in tough times.
An hour in the company of Louis Timpany got me thinking. Of course, the big-ticket industry decisions get made in boardrooms; those called to debate the future of the industry with politicians and policy wonks will be wearing suits. Nobody weeps hot tears over the plight of a developer of any size; maybe it is time to articulate just how vast and varied this industry is – the builder who has his van broken into overnight is just as relevant to the conversation as the master developer lobbying for thousands of new homes.
And talking of debating with politicians, I hear that some pretty heavyweight housebuilders were called to Westminster recently to discuss the future of their industry. Once gathered in the room, on came a video screen and the government officials were all dialling in from home. You can’t plaster someone’s wall, or build someone’s home, from home – whether that is one or 1.5 million.
Those housebuilding leaders should have turned off the video screen and switched on Fix Radio instead. Several of those CEOs probably started on a building site, radio blaring. It’s a great career, providing you have, or are given, the right tools. Time to tune into the Bald Builders Breakfast show.
This article was first featured in Show House Magazine. Read more like this and the latest industry insight here.
