The IHBC’s support for its listing of corporate bodies that support the institute’s conservation standards, HESPR, now includes regular email alerts on relevant tender advertisements, and which this week sees a record £71,815,000 of specified costs for works notified to the institute’s HESPR members, a conservative figure as it takes minimum contract values and excludes works with no values specified.
IHBC’s Director Sean O’Reilly said: ‘We developed our listing of IHBC-recognised business services, HESPR, back in 2007 to help support our private sector members and their businesses. Growth has been slow, often with our most ardent supporters – and volunteers – leading the way. Now, with benefits such as our regular tender alerts, the dedicated pages in our Yearbook, as well as the high profile and credibility offered through any association with the IHBC’s strong brand, I’m confident we’ll see renewed interest in this high-end service, helped also by the fact that, like all the top-notch benefits in the IHBC, it comes at bargain basement prices.’
‘These new notices of tenders advertise opportunities to our HESPR members, but the data is collected also to record the breadth and scale of our members’ prospective interests. The works advertised are very diverse, ranging from archaeological contracts to new build in historic areas – no less central a concern for any concerned conservation practitioner or civic volunteer – so of course not all tenders will be relevant to every HESPR member. However, just as our NewsBlogs represent our member interests in their distillation of sector news, so too the circulated tenders represent the business interests of our members’ sectors in all their diversity.
‘And of course we’ll also be able use the data gathered in preparing the notices to help push our conservation agenda to government and policy makers. With these figures they must better understand just how central conservation must become in policy development.’
IHBC Projects Officer Fiona Newton said: ‘Remember too that HESPR membership is open to any service provider that wishes to tie their corporate operations to the practice standards of the IHBC. All that your business needs is a full member of the IHBC who is willing to link their personal professional obligations to the service standards of the company they represent. That way IHBC member serves as its ‘Designated Service Adviser’, or DSA. The DSA might be anyone from a sole trader in private practice to a staff member in a multi- with DSA responsibilities specified in the job description.’
