Six months isn’t long in this industry. Projects we kicked off in January are still on site and some of the decisions we took in February won’t show what they’re really worth for another year or two.
Six months is long enough, though, to know whether you’re heading in the right direction.
I set out this year to spend a lot less time behind a desk and a lot more time with our regional teams, out on projects, and sat in front of the contractors and clients who make our business what it is. An hour across a table from somebody who installs our systems for a living will teach you more than a month of internal reporting. Some of what I’ve heard has been challenging. All of it has been worth hearing and more importantly, it’s changed what we’ve done next.
We’ve been careful about who we bring in. Qualifications matter, more than they did five years ago, but I’m looking for something more and something you can’t put on a CV. Calibre. Instinct. Leadership. People who understand that expertise isn’t just a certificate on the wall, it’s something you have to demonstrate on every project, in front of every client, every time. Hiring that way is slower, and we’ve had to be patient with it but I’m proud of the new leadership team we have.
None of it counts for much if the fundamentals aren’t right, though. The system we specify has to work on the building in front of us, in the conditions that building faces, for as long as we say it will. That’s where expertise must show up, and if I’m honest, it’s the thing I’ve spent most of this year improving and protecting, because everything else we do sits on top of it.
Our projects have tested that. Live, occupied buildings, with people underneath you who’ve got quite enough going on without water coming through the ceiling. There’s no margin for error in that work. It forces you to think hard about design, about sequencing, and about the quality of the team standing on the roof, which is exactly where your head should be.
Then there’s the problem our whole industry keeps talking about but is not doing enough to address, which is that there aren’t enough skilled people coming through. Apprenticeships and the Roofing Academy are our answer to it. We bring people in through apprenticeship routes as well as the classroom, we train them properly, we offer a way into a trade that can be a career rather than a last resort, and we work with contractor partners, so the development carries on long after they’ve left us. We’re all so proud of it but also realistic. We won’t see the full return for years yet. That is exactly why it needed starting now rather than when it became convenient.
Renewables has been the other big move. Our solar PV work isn’t a bolt-on to the roofing business, it comes from the same conviction. A roof is one of the very few parts of a building that can actively bring down the cost of living in it. If we can design and install systems that cut energy bills for people in social housing and the schools that teach our children, that isn’t a marketing exercise. That’s For Better Living doing the job it was meant to do. Building the offer properly, with the right people and the right guarantees behind it, has taken longer than some would have liked. I’d rather that than launch something we couldn’t stand behind.
On accountability, I want to be direct. Our Insurance-Backed Guarantee wording, and the financial protection sitting behind it, is now formally approved by TrustMark. That matters because a guarantee is only ever as good as whatever stands behind it, and for years this industry has asked clients to take that on trust. Independent approval replaces trust with evidence. I think that’s the right direction for all of us, not just for Langley.
Alongside that we hold SafeContractor accreditation and our ISO certifications, and we’re assessed against them continually. I know how those get read from the outside. A row of logos at the bottom of a website. But the Building Safety Act has changed what they mean. They aren’t reassurance anymore, they’re evidence. When a client or the Regulator asks you to prove competency, you either have the systems and the records to do it or you don’t, and we’ve spent a lot of time making sure we do.
The ability to evidence compliance is critical and operators in this sector must be able to substantiate performance and system accreditation to the required standard. Unfortunately, not all system providers have the depth and breadth of accreditation they ought to have, or even claim to have, and by definition those systems do not formally comply. Our job is to educate the market on the technical differences, making clients more aware of exactly what they’re specifying and the technical standards a roofing system must adhere to. Ultimately, we should all be judged to the same technical standards. At the moment, this is not happening. This is a serious matter and we need to call it out.
Here’s the question I keep coming back to, though. Why did it take legislation to get our industry to this point? We should have been holding ourselves to that standard already.
We’re not finished. Some of it has taken longer than I wanted. There are parts of this business where the standard we’re aiming at isn’t yet the standard we hit every single time, and I’d rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. But the direction’s right, the people are right, and what sits underneath is stronger than it has been in years.
The next six months aren’t about how much more we can do. They’re about delivering to the standard we’ve set, holding the quality on every project, and leaving something that lasts, for the buildings we work on and the people who live and work under our roofs.
One last thing. I’ve spent most of this year on the road because the conversations that change how we work happen face to face, not over email. If you’re a client or a contractor partner and we haven’t had that conversation yet, I’d like to. Get in touch with the team, and we’ll find a date.
