John O'Brien - LCMB

Happy New Year from LCMB and our predictions for 2015 are…

Happy New Year and welcome to 2015!

I hope you, like our team at LCMB had a great Christmas break; we’re now all back at work refreshed, healthier and a little bit rosier after our Christmas excesses.

For our first blog of 2015 I thought I’d make some predictions for 2015 and summarise our plans for the year.

My first prediction is that while the price of Brent crude oil has just fallen below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 we will continue to see price drops at the pumps but not on our commercial and residential utility bills. This is due to the structure of our energy markets. Utility prices in the long run will unfortunately continue their upward march.

My second prediction is that the pressure to do more with less will continue for the public sector through the full length of the next Parliament. This will also be the case for all private sector organisations, particularly consumer focused businesses such as retail, irrespective of current economic growth. This view has been formed because of the reduced spending power of organisations and individuals brought on by the long run mismatch between growth and inflation over the most recent recession.

My third prediction is that more investment will be put into improving the operational performance and refurbishment of existing building stock. As current legalisation, policy and taxation start to bite and our business community becomes more aware of the massive bottom line impact and return on investment this area offers for organisations.

And my final prediction and perhaps most shocking is that the electorate will return a conservative led collation Government in May after baulking at returning the UK’s economic governance to Ed Balls and Ed Miliband. This new Government will also increase the volume of climate change legalisation, taxation and incentives for green investment over the life of their Parliament due to an increased global interest in tackling climate change and to maintain the UK’s world class carbon reduction knowledge and capability.

In 2015 LCMB plan to ramp up our investment in our team, approach and the skills we can bring to help our clients make their buildings work harder by reducing their operational costs and energy use. We’ll share more detail on how we plan to do this in our upcoming blogs and newsletters.

I wish you a prosperous 2015 and I’ll return to review and score my prediction for 2015 in my first blog of January 2016.

If you want to discuss or learn how LCMB can help you make your buildings work harder by making them more financially and environmentally sustainable in 2015 then contact John on t: 01295 722823 or e: [email protected] or visit our website at www.lcmb.co.uk

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