International Women’s Day
As part of the AFI’s ongoing commitment to recognising, highlighting and promoting women across the fencing industry, we are currently updating the Women in Fencing page on the AFI website.
The page showcases the wide range of roles women hold within our sector — from office-based and operational roles to leadership and on-site positions — and celebrates the achievements and contributions they make every day.
We are inviting members put forward women from their organisations who they feel deserve recognition.
This update forms part of the AFI’s wider International Women’s Day activity and supports our aim to promote visibility, representation and excellence across the industry.
If you would like to update existing information or submit new details, please contact the AFI team at info@theafi.co.uk.
Thank you for supporting the AFI’s work in celebrating women in fencing and helping us ensure the page reflects the breadth of talent across our membership.
Increasing Housebuilding
The Government has announced a ‘reset’ of the Section 106 (S106) market to unlock the delivery of new homes. As well as delivering social and affordable housing, S106 agreements account for a significant share of total new home delivery, and the package of reforms is designed to reduce disruption to the development pipeline as a whole.
With thousands of S106 units currently uncontracted and unsold, a new time‐limited emergency measure will allow local planning authorities (LPAs) to renegotiate existing S106 agreements when certain conditions are met to allow the tenure of these affordable homes to be varied in order to secure a buyer. In the longer term, the Government has set out a roadmapfor wider reform of the S106 system to make it simpler and more resilient. Measures include publishing a template S106 agreement for use by LPAs, providing greater clarity on the standards that S106 homes must meet, and making low‐interest loans available to private registered providers of S106 homes.
The Government has also launched the second phase of the New Homes Accelerator, which aims to speed up the delivery of housing developments across England, with support now extended to smaller sites of under 500 homes. Operations will also be expanded in London via a new planning support service for boroughs.
FREE Training from Perennial
Free training to help people managers to feel more confident holding conversations about mental health with team members.
We know many of you Managers, Supervisors or Team Leaders would like to support your team’s mental wellbeing, but are worried you might say the wrong thing, or make things worse.
The feedback from our network of MHFA Ambassadors is that many people managers would benefit from practical training to enable them to be more confident in conversations about mental wellbeing.
That’s why we are offering this free 1 hour webinar that has been created and delivered in partnership with Mental Health First Aid England
The webinar will cover:
- What is mental health?
- Exploring mental health in the industry
- Understanding stigma
- The importance of knowing your team and knowing yourself
- Early warning signs
- Starting a mental health conversation
- Signposting
“We had been having some conversations with people already but did not know how to deal with it. We would chat more like mates to people and wanted to know how to do it properly…we wanted to do it right” A trained MHFAider.
Places are limited so book your spot today – book here
If the session you are looking for is full please email training@perennial.org.uk.
New Single Construction Regulator
Over 125 members joined the Build UK latest Building Safety call where the Single Regulator Team from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) presented the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus, setting out its vision for a single regulatory system designed to ensure that buildings are safe and high‐performing.
- Establishing a Single Construction Regulator was the first recommendation in the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, and it identified 12 functions for the new regulator spanning buildings, construction products and built environment professionals.
- The Government has accepted 10 of those functions, including licensing contractors to work on Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs), monitoring operation of Building Regulations and the statutory guidance, and accrediting fire risk assessors. It did not accept that testing and certification of products should be undertaken by the new regulator as it would create a conflict of interest, and reforms to the construction products regime will be set out in a White Paper to be published this spring.
- The Building Safety Regulator (BSR), which is now a standalone arm’s length body under MHCLG, will ‘act as a foundation’ for the Single Construction Regulator, with existing regulatory bodies to be strengthened before their functions are incorporated in phases.
Legislation to establish the Single Construction Regulator is expected to be laid in Parliament in spring 2027, with implementation from 2028.
Members can share their views on the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus until Friday 20 March. For any members that missed our Building Safety call, MHCLG is running a webinar on the prospectus on Tuesday 10 March from 10:00am to 11:00am.
Driver distraction – help your drivers get home safe and well
We know that in the great majority of cases the initial cause of a road incident is around driver behaviour, with distraction – often by mobile phone, both hands-free and handheld – being a major issue.
These incidents can so easily result in severe injury or fatality.
It’s vital that as an organisation, and as a manager or owner, you are confident that your drivers understand the importance of not being distracted when driving. Distraction can lead to charges of death by dangerous driving or death by careless driving, resulting in severe penalties, prosecution and even imprisonment.
Hands-free calls are dangerous. Drivers should not answer work calls until they are parked somewhere safe to take the call. Distraction comes in the form of other activities as well – eating, reading and anything that takes their attention and focus away from their key task of driving.
So, how confident are you that your drivers will not be distracted when driving? Do you have a strict no-mobile policy, which requires phones to be turned off or blocked while driving?
Check this month’s free posters and info sheets, and share with your drivers.
DOWNLOAD YOUR DRIVER INFO SHEETS & POSTERS
Open Doors – More Events Needed! Students to staff the future of fencing in your hands with Open Doors events.
With just six weeks to go until Open Doors 2026, we are seeing a fantastic response from visitors with over 60% of events already fully booked! Demand is currently outstripping availability in key locations, and we need your help to maximise opportunities for those interested in seeing our industry in action from Monday 23 ‐ Saturday 28 March.
We have more enquiries than we do events in major cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, as well as Kent and Pembrokeshire. If you and your teams are already hosting events in these areas, we would be really grateful if you could consider adding extra sessions. Alternatively, if you have sites in these locations that are not yet registered, please look at whether you could host events during Open Doors Week. We know from feedback that Open Doors visits lead directly to people joining our industry, and everyone can help to inspire the next generation to choose a career in construction by getting involved.
AFI Membership Renewals & Certified Contractor Scheme
A quick reminder that membership renewal fees were due by the end of January. To ensure there’s no interruption to your benefits, please make sure your renewal is completed.
As part of your renewal, if you send us your updated insurance documents along with a reference (this can be in any format — a social media post, website review, testimonial, message, etc.), we will automatically add Yellow – General Certified Contractor Status to your membership.
If you’re interested in achieving a higher level of Certified Contractor Status, we’re very happy to help — we’ll just need a little additional information from you. Please get in touch and we can guide you through the next steps.
Thank you for being part of the AFI community, and we appreciate your continued support.