BRE TRUST

Record of the Fourteenth Annual General Meeting

held on Wednesday 28July 2010

at BRE, Garston

1.Welcome

Sir Neville Simmsthe Chairman of BRE Trust,welcomed members of the BRE Group Board and BRE Group staff to BRE Trust’s fourteenth Annual General Meeting.

2.Record of the thirteenthAnnual General Meeting

The Chairmanadvised that the Trustees had considered and approved this record when Council met on26thNovember 2009.

The AGM approved this record as a full and accurate account of the thirteenth Annual General Meeting of BRE Trust.

3.Financial Statements for 2009 / 2010

Sir Neville invited the AGM to consider the BRE Trust Financial Statements 2009/10 These Statements included the Trustees’ Annual Report, a report by the Trust’s auditors (KPMG) and details of the Financial Activities of the Trust.

He informed the AGM that the Trustees had,at the meeting of BRE Trust’s Council, held immediately before this Annual General Meeting, unanimously accepted the Financial Statements for 2009/10 and agreed they should be presented to the AGM.

Sir Neville made the following points before asking the AGM to consider the statements. He said:

  • As a charity the Trust carries out research and education functions for public benefit. As the owner of the BRE Group and its subsidiaries BRE and BRE Global, it has a duty to work with the management of the Group to ensure its ongoing commercial success and financial health and to ensure that the subsidiary companies maintain their research, publication and consultancy capabilities at a high level. This in turn enables the Trust to deliver against its charitable objectives and carry on supporting the majority of the public benefit research projects and publications that the Trust places with BRE and BRE Global.
  • In operational terms BRE Trust and BRE Group are two sides of a single coin, with one side (BRE Group) being the commercial operation and the other side (BRE Trust) being the charitable operation. Dr Martin Wyatt, formerly Chief Executive but now Chairman of BRE Group and Russell Heusch, the Financial Director, are responsible to the Trustees for the overall management of the commercial operations.
  • The Trustees are pleased to report that the charity has again achieved its principal objectives for the financial year to the end of March 2010 which included the introduction of a new publications programme, the commencement of a thematic research programme in addition to maintaining its existing research programme and continuing to provide support to the BRE University Centres of Excellence and PhD students in what has been a difficult time for the construction sector generally. In terms of the number of publications (reports in the FB research reports series, Information Papers and NHBC Foundation reports) the Trust has comfortably exceeded the target it set at the outset of the year.
  • The net profit of the Group this year is £3.055 million based on a turnover of £46.608 million compared to £2.151 million last year on a turnover of slightly more than £48.126. This is a significant improvement in performance despite the reduced turnover and general market conditions. This year the level of profit delivered as gift aid to the Trust was £2.341 million which can be compared to £1.512 million last year.
  • This year the Trust spent £2.702 million on research projects and publications which is a significant increase from £1.789 million last year. Of this £1.885 million supported projects in its managed research programme andNHBC Foundation projects. £283,000 supported the three year Thematic Research Programme into Low Impact Materials, Products and Processes. £817,000 supported external costs (compared to £531,000 last year) most of which supports the University Centres of Excellence and the PhD students. In addition £388,000 supported the new publications programme. The majority of projects within the research and publications programmes were commissioned principally, but not exclusively, from BRE Group companies. The Trust benefits in two ways by placing the majority of its managed research programme with the BRE Group. It not only has the opportunity to review the performance of its subsidiary companies from the standpoint of an independent commissioning client, but it also benefits from ensuring that the subsidiary companies have the depth of knowledge and skill required to be commercially and financially successful.

Sir Neville Simms reported on a number of developments that became reality in 2009/10

  • At the last AGM the collegiate members of BRE Trust resolved to dissolve the membership structure. Since BRE Trust became a charity in 2002, its focus has widened. The collegiate system excluded representation from some stakeholders in the built environment and the structure was not flexible enough to allow BRE Trust to adapt to meet the changes and challenges that face the modern built environment.

Without an elaborate membership structure and with its new web site BRE Trust is much better positioned to display independence and openness in serving the wider community.

  • The five BRE University Centres of Excellence Chairs held their first two collaborative meetings with BRE. The first was held in June 2009 here at BRE and the second was hosted by CardiffUniversity in December 2009 jointly hosted by Chris Tweed of the BRE Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Design of the Built Environment and Yacine Rezgui of BRE Centre of Excellence in Building Systems and Informatics. The Chair held by Yacine Rezgui is the fifth University Centre of Excellence supported (but not funded) by the Trust and was founded in 2009. As a result of these meetings (the third was held last month at BRE) the University Centres have a much greater understanding of each other and BRE and some very interesting ideas for collaborative work are coming out. The Chairs as a result of a fairly modest BRE Trust investment have been able to bid for nearly £20m of funding from other sources, and provide support for over 64 PhD students of whom 26 were BRE Trust supported at March 2010.
  • Another new development for 2009 was the launch of the BRE Trust Publications programme with a budget of £600,000 of which £50,000 is reserved for ‘hot topics’ and £50,000 for establishing a web-based magazine – ‘building4life’. 52 publications were given approval to proceed in June and by March 2010 ten of these had been through the entire process and available for purchase, most of remainder (bar three) being in final stages of production. This initiative has proved very successful in improving the number and quality of publications produced by BRE and BRE Global and has been welcomed by the publisher IHS BRE Press who can now rely on a predictable and steady stream of high quality approved drafts from authors.

In February 2009 the newly formed BRE Trust Publications Committee chaired by Hugh Ferguson had their first meeting and awarded contracts for 48 publications most of which are now well underway.

The full list of publications is in the printed report.

  • In November 2009 the BRE Trust Research Committee chaired by Professor John Burland gave approval to proceed with 20 new projects in a thematic research programme entitled Low Impact Materials Products and Processes. The Trustees wished to ensure that the proposals were of a high standard and so approvals were only given in the last quarter and expenditure was consequently less than expected. Expenditure this year (2010/11) is as a result expected to be higher than originally planned at the beginning of 2009.

Sir Neville Simms noted that more details of all these new initiatives can be found in the BRE Trust Review 2009.

Sir Neville reported on other BRE Trust activities as follows:

  • The fifth annual review event of research projects completed by March 2010 was held on 1st June 2010 under the title ‘BRE Trust Research Conference 2010’. The review chaired by the BRE Trust Research Committee with opening words from the CEO of BRE (Peter Bonfield) covered research projects from both BRE and BRE Global and the BRE University Centres of Excellence of Strathclyde and Edinburgh. The research projects presented demonstrated a wide range of expertise.

These research review events are a continuing initiative to enable the members of the research committee (Professor John Burland, Professor Les Clark and Mr Richard Haryott) to assess the quality of the research projects funded by the Trust in front of an invited audience. The research committee was pleased to report to the Trustees that the quality of the projects reviewed was good and that the standard of presentation has improved considerably over the last couple of years.

At the meeting of BRE Trust Council held immediately before the AGM the Trustees agreed that the BRE Trust Research Conference would become one of the mainstream of BRE conferences. It was important that more people especially those involved in legislation and standards should be aware of the important BRE Trust funded research that was being carried out.

  • Eight newprojects were added to the established managed research programme during the course of the year. This meant that the total number of active research projects within the managed research programme during 2009/10 was the same as the previous year at forty-three. All projects within the managed research programme have identifiable milestones and delivery dates and are assessed on a project by project basis by Professor Burland and the research committee. The BRE Trust Council receives regular quarterly reports on progress from the research manager.
  • The active projects that have already been established within the managed research programme will continue during 2009/10 in parallel with the three year £1.5 million thematic research programme. In addition the BRE Trust has initiated a new call for proposals under the managed programme with a total budget of £300,000 spread over two years.
  • In addition to the publications produced from the new publications programme, BRE Trust also supports the publication of BRE Trust funded research reports from the research budget and during the year the Trust produced 20 new publications (compared to 18 the previous year) based on work it had supported. Ten of these were produced by the NHBC Foundation [7 last year] which is a collaboration between the Trust and NHBC. A full list of these publications is included in the printed report. The ninth [and last] issue of ‘Foundation’ was also published.
  • In 2009 WRAP agreed to provide a grant of £160,000 to work in Partnership with BRE Trust to commission research relating to the development of three sector resource efficiency plans. The preparation of these plans is of strategic importance and forms part of the Construction Products Association commitment as detailed in the UK Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Construction.
  • During the year 2009/10 the Trust continued to provide financial support to the four Chairs at the BRE Centres at EdinburghUniversity (Fire Safety Engineering), StrathclydeUniversity (Energy Utilisation Research), BathUniversity (Innovatory Construction Materials) and CardiffUniversity –Welsh School of Architecture (Sustainable Building Design).
  • All of the five university Centres in the BRE - Universities Partnership are allocated PhD studentships funded by the Trust. At the conclusion of 2009/10 there were 26 active PhD/Engineering Doctorate projects within the BRE Trust PhD postgraduate scholarship scheme. Appointments were made to nine of the new studentships on offer and appropriately-qualified candidates for five vacant positions were being sought.
  • On 1 – 2 July 2010 BRE Trust funded a PhD student conference hosted by BathUniversity for all BRE Trust PhD students. The event, over two days, gave the students at all stages of their research a rare opportunity to hear what other students were doing and share what they were doing with others. The event was attended by two members of the BRE Trust Research committee who each gave their observations of the conference on the second day. The event was regarded as a great success and it is hoped that it can be repeated next year.
  • For the fifth consecutive year the Trust has provided Parmiter’s School in Watford with support and financial assistance to enable a group of sixth form pupils to participate in the Engineering Education Scheme (England), which is part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘Best’ programme. This scheme gives pupils the opportunity to work on a project, guided by a mentor from a company, in this case BRE Global Limited, so they can experience science, engineering and technology first hand. The students’ project on ‘Research into the energy saving properties of phase change materials in a cavity wall’ gained them a gold award in the British Association for the Advancement of Science CREST scheme.The Trust will continue to support this initiative.

Sir Neville concluded by noting that, despite the economic environment, the BRE Trust has been able to increase its support for research and education throughout 2009/10, and plans to continue building on this success during 20010/11.

There is no requirement in the constitution of BRE Trust for the formal approval of the AGM to be sought for Financial statements – but on behalf of the Trustees the Chairman commended the Financial Statements to the meeting.

5. Any Other Business

As there were no further items or issues for the Meeting to consider, Sir Neville thanked members and others for attending and declared thefourteenthAnnual General Meeting closed.

BRE Trust Secretariat

July 2010

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