Happy New Year, I hope like me you’ve enjoyed your Christmas break with your family and friends.

At the beginning of a new year, I’ve a tradition of making a few personal predictions for the year ahead, on trends that I think will impact our customers, partners and all of us at LCMB.

Last year, I made four predictions; that oil would finish 2016 at $55 a barrel; we’d see a significant commercial break through in nuclear fusion; the UK economy would grow, interest rates would rise and the UK electorate would vote to remain in the EU, and; there would be no let up from the public and private sector to do more with less resource.

Clearly, I was spectacularly wrong on my predictions for the UK to remain in the EU and for a breakthrough in nuclear fusion.

With the gun yet to be fired on the Brexit negotiations, it’s challenging predicting the UK’s future. However, I’ve got out my crystal ball and have the following thoughts on trends we’ll see over the next twelve months which will continue to impact us all:

• UK business investment will pick up significantly when a coherent Brexit plan and negotiating position emerges and is properly communicated, over the last period UK business has returned more money to investors than reinvested in their businesses
• Brexit will present plenty of new opportunity for businesses and people who are prepared to explore doing things differently
• UK Government will continue to try and focus company investment into improving worker productivity, as this is the UK’s best route to improving wage growth and everyone’s living standards
• The use and convergence of artificial intelligence, big data and the internet of things (IOT) will have a big impact on consumer electronics and will increasingly be integrated into and support the operation of our buildings.

I am very excited about the year ahead and the opportunity for LCMB to support our customers to become even more productive in a post Brexit world, by making their resources go further.

For this reason, over the next year LCMB will continue our investment in developing and delivering solutions to make our customers buildings and people more productive. This includes Whole Life Performance Plus our Innovate UK and EPSRC supported project to improve workplace productivity by 10%.

Happy New Year and best wishes for a prosperous 2017.

Contact John O’Brien, LCMB Founder and MD, on t: 01295 722823 or e: [email protected] if you would like to explore how our team can help your organisation improve the return you get from your buildings. Read our case studies for some examples of how we have helped our customers improve their productivity and the return they get from their resources.