Our technical knowledge enables us to deliver quality, reliability and value across multiple business challenges – from commercial and residential properties through to historic buildings and high security estates.
Our technical knowledge enables us to deliver quality, reliability and value across multiple business challenges – from commercial and residential properties through to historic buildings and high security estates.
VINCI Facilities Building Solutions has a strong heritage of providing building services and solutions to public and private customers across multiple sectors, including British Telecom, Ministry of Justice, London School of Economics, Parliamentary Works Estate, Metropolitan Police, Peabody and numerous local councils and housing providers.
By clicking on the interactive Building Solutions Capability Wheel below, you can explore each facet of our building expertise.
Discover how our maintenance, adaptation and project works on social housing are supported by a team of Resident Liaison Officers, who become a central point of contact for residents and stakeholders. This team ensure the needs of all residents are met, with specific plans and additional measures being provided for vulnerable residents.
Learn about our dedicated Cladding & EWI team. Following the fire at Grenfell and the resulting Building a Safer Future report (2018), we have built a team that can deliver the critical rectification of buildings at risk of fire, including high-rise blocks.
Understand how our flexible, collaborative and customer-focused approach makes us the perfect partner for customers requiring building solutions within live operational environments. With highly experienced teams and detailed forward planning, we ensure minimal disruption to critical facilities, such as A&E departments and prisons.
For full interactivity, please view our capability wheels on a desktop computer or laptop.
Click on the diagram to find out more 
Providing clients with real-time information is key to a successful and collaborative relationship. Our work with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) to develop and utilise a digital portal has enabled both parties to manage and deliver the required services efficiently and effectively.
The portal is jointly managed by SMBC and VINCI Facilities and uses digitalised documents from both parties to provide synergy and increased efficiency. Tablets are used to capture data and update all stakeholders on the progress of the works. V-Forms feed into the frontline delivery and SharePoint collaboration area. The portal pulls all the housing and work information together and makes it available for review, extrapolation and interrogation, which in turn provides visibility and transparency of the housing maintenance operation.
The portal has been designed to enable management information, pictures and videos to be viewed remotely and work signed off, where applicable. This has allowed SMBC to make more efficient use of its surveyors, as they only need to attend properties when circumstances dictate. This system has proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The portal displays the agreed end-toend process and gateways for managing the works, providing SMBC with financial savings, increased efficiency and carbon footprint reduction. It shows the status and progress of planned works and voids, and provides daily engagement across the contract, giving SMBC surety that all activities are recorded and monitored.
The delivery of our maintenance, adaptations and project works to residents’ homes is supported by our client-facing team of Resident Liaison Officers (RLO), who support residents during the period immediately prior, during and after the works.
The RLOs work with our teams, the residents and other key stakeholders (e.g. family, carers or specialist support such as Occupational Therapists) to become the central point of contact and ensure that the residents’ needs are met during the works. Working with the client, the RLOs liaise with all residents, but have a particular focus on vulnerable residents, where they implement a ‘Red Tag’ process, which includes a specific plan and additional measures to further minimise disruption.
Our award-winning service is accredited through Tpas - an independent body dedicated to improving tenant engagement standards across social housing in England and Wales. The accreditation is a clear indication that VINCI Facilities is not just excellent at delivering services to its client but is committed to community support and the wider goals around social housing. The Tpas ‘Accreditation Assessment Panel’ unanimously confirmed the award to VINCI Facilities for a further three years, acknowledging that our team work to an exemplary standard.
Our work across England and Wales in social housing, notably with Peabody in London and Sandwell Council in the West Midlands, demonstrates how our teams are responsive to the needs of tenants and potential residents. We engage with local people, supporting initiatives like ‘Reading from the Start’ with Peabody and working alongside local schools and colleges in Sandwell and Barking & Dagenham.
Our Disabled Aids & Adaptations Provision service provides end-to-end services for vulnerable and disabled residents to improve their home and to provide a safe and secure environment in which they can live independently, as much as possible.
Working with Peabody, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Occupational Therapists and residents, we design and build the adaptations provision, under the auspices of the Disabled Facilities Grant and other available funding.
Disabled adaptations within homes include the conversion of bathrooms to level access showers, door widening, floor levelling and the provision of ramps to access the property. Over the last two years we have installed adaptations and built extensions for circa 170 homes. The installation of aids such as handrails, grab-rails and wash and dry toilets assist residents to live independently. Visually-impaired residents benefit from our decorating service, which provides them with points of reference by using contrasting colour within the home to highlight switches, sockets and doors.
Clients and end-users benefit from our solution as all aspects from design to delivery are undertaken by VINCI Facilities, working collaboratively with all appropriate agencies to ensure works are delivered in a timely manner and with a ‘right first time’ ethos.
Our Voids service is designed to ensure that housing stock is maximised and out of commission for the shortest possible periods during changeover between residents. Working collaboratively with clients such as Peabody and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC), we manage the operation to turn around the properties, ensuring they meet the client’s ‘Lettable Standard’ and are defect-free at handover. Our clients provide details of requirements and we survey and identify the most cost-effective solution, using in-house tradespeople and specialist supply chain partners to undertake the works. All works are completed before the ‘Ready to Let’ date on a ‘right first-time’ basis. We have the capacity and capability to manage many hundreds of voids each year, managing one as a mini project to ensure it is completed on time.
Our clients and the voids management team have access to a digital SharePoint, which stores all information in one place and allows us all to see the end-to-end progress of each job. SMBC and VINCI Facilities have worked collaboratively to develop the tools, which provide both parties with transparency and visibility of the entire operation.
Following the fire at Grenfell and the resulting “Building a Safer Future” report (2018), VINCI Facilities Building Solutions has been involved in a number of projects where we have assisted our clients in making their residential high-rise buildings compliant with the new statutory requirements, including Building Regulations Doc B AN14 & EWS1 (via ‘A2 or better’ cladding and EWI solutions). Our existing clients including Peabody, Camden, One Housing Group and Sanctuary have engaged us as they know we can deliver with integrity, quality, to budget, and with safety for all stakeholders.
Over the past three years, we have built an experienced team that specialises in Cladding & EWI remediation, and fire safety works. This team of technical staff and managers, supported by consultants, architects, and specialist supply chain partners, work collaboratively with clients, enabling us to efficiently deliver the critical rectification of buildings at risk of fire (including high-rise blocks).
Our clients benefit from our experience, which we have utilised to provide a road map that addresses statutory requirements, assembling all parties to operate within the ‘Golden Thread’ methodology. This includes design risk matrix agreements, and contractual tree of legal responsibilities, along with ensuring that communication with all stakeholders (especially residents) is exemplary from project commencement to project completion.
As a major building and civil engineering contractor, we have decades of experience of Design & Build (D&B) projects and our building arm, VINCI Facilities Building Solutions, has been operating in the sub-£10m, D&B category for more than 15 years.
We take our clients’ concepts, develop them into fully worked designs, and then deliver construction or building refurbishment projects. We follow the updated RIBA Plan of Work stages, including the new sustainability project strategy, and our designs utilise the latest BIM Level 2 modelling techniques.
Our clients benefit from over 20 years’ experience of asset life-cycle planning, certified to ISO 19650, and operational effectiveness gained from our FM business. Understanding how a design will work in practice offers our clients opportunities to improve operational performance as well as optimise costs. This has been shown in secure environments, such as HM Prisons, where we’ve incorporated practical solutions to reduce the requirement for monitoring and personnel.
In 2020, we delivered over 30 D&B projects to clients such as NHS, Royal Mail and others through a dedicated, CIOB qualified project management team, fully qualified and experienced architects, and a specialist supply chain. The new Emergency Department at Kings College Hospital, and the creation of the site’s first dedicated triage facility, demonstrates our ability to collaborate and design a fit for purpose solution, providing them with newly-built facilities despite the inherent challenges of working in a live hospital.
Where appropriate, we adopt the GSL and BSRIA BG54/2014 principles and processes that ensure our projects, across all handover phases, are gradually transferred and supported post-delivery or post-occupation. Our approach employs the six-stage process of the BSRIA Framework, working with our clients collaboratively to set expectations, designing and developing a specification in line with expectations, and regularly reviewing all aspects prior to handover to ensure we reinforce the operational readiness of the building.
During handover, we remain on site to provide assistance as required and remain involved with the building for the first three years of operation to ensure the ‘asset’ performs as expected.
A recent project at Waters Mass Spectrometry (WMS) benefitted from using the principles of BSRIA and GSL. The new facility was far more sophisticated than the old one, including solar tracked blinds and a fully automated air conditioning system. It has specifically designed manufacturing facilities and automated picking robots, all of which were different from previous versions. By developing 3D images and 4D fly-throughs, the team showed the users their routes to storage and manufacturing, access arrangements and even how they charged meals to their smart access card. We also provided user-guides and information before the installation of the equipment and technical O&M Manuals, which were developed in collaboration with WMS employees and made available for reference.
We recognise that Mechanical & Electrical Installations are a critical and integral element in the success of our projects. These systems create the environments that people want to live or work in, making them comfortable, functional, efficient and safe.
Our teams of skilled, experienced technical staff alongside our integrated supply chain (including designers and specialist installers), provide a fully integrated installation and fit-out service on a diverse range of projects, from high tech installations to the more delicate specialist needs of classical or listed buildings.
Teams are supported by a range of established processes, procedures and digital systems (including BIM) that ensure the installation, integration and co-ordination between the various building services is seamless and the building fabric is expertly delivered.
Early engagement with end users and a strong focus on commissioning, handover and training ensures the installed system is enjoyed to the greatest degree.
This was a key aspect of a recent project at Sutton Hoo on behalf of the National Trust, where the ambitious scope of works had to be delivered within a tight budget. The works included the installation of air conditioning units in the exhibition hall rather than radiators, reducing both installation and running costs. Roof-lights were fitted with light-reducing film rather than blinds, creating reductions in both cost and maintenance. A concrete slab in the courtyard was formed using a metal shutter system rather than traditional timber shuttering, resulting in significant time savings.
Our teams have considerable experience delivering refurbishment and transformation projects within ‘live’ and sensitive environments across sectors including defence, healthcare, schools, blue light, prisons, communications, aircraft facilities and housing. Paramount to the successful delivery of our projects is minimising disruption and providing a positive environment that supports our clients’ operational and service user experience.
We take care to understand the client’s operations and explore how the works could affect them. Working with all stakeholders to build early collaborative relationships, we are able to provide advice and develop solutions that add value.
Our experienced multi-disciplined teams are supported by a range of established processes, procedures and digital systems, which are tailored to the individual needs of the project. All projects operate robust safety and security measures, as demonstrated at MoJ HM Prison sites, with regular stakeholder engagement throughout the life of the project.
Our flexible approach and understanding of client needs is demonstrated with our refurbishment of the Acute Assessment Unit at West Suffolk Hospital. By careful planning, flexible working, daily client updates and phasing of works, including the out-of-sequence installation of services, this critical facility remained operational throughout with zero disruption to other hospital facilities, including the adjacent A&E department. We also accommodated a £500k increase in the scope of works without affecting the critical completion date.
VINCI Facilities Building Solutions delivers many sub-£500k small projects and minor works programmes annually across a range of live environments, including prisons, mail offices, social housing, and other operational facilities. Projects vary from small adjustments to workspaces to the installation and refurbishment of building services, including heating and lighting systems.
Our in-house team project manages the works, providing end-to-end control of the design and build process. The works are delivered by our in-house personnel who are supported by an integrated and experienced team of specialist supply chain partners. These partners have a full understanding of the way we work, and we know their capabilities, which allows us to select the correct partners for each project we undertake.
Recent projects include the refurbishment of a 50sq.m warehouse facility, used for transporting bodies, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including decoration, flooring, extraction fans and lighting. This project required us to reconfigure the mortuary’s internal layout to create two new rooms (a general storeroom and a body storeroom). We installed special storage facilities for extra-large/bariatric bodies and new refrigerated slabs for each body store compartment. We relocated the department’s control panel and installed enhanced fire prevention facilities. Additionally, we installed improved monitoring equipment to allow the performance data of each fridge to be monitored remotely.
The hospital now benefits from an upgraded and enlarged facility and experienced zero impact to its services throughout the works thanks to a collaborative client relationship.
As part of our approach to maximising added value for clients, we are committed to innovation, continuous improvement, improved efficiency and the elimination of waste through the value engineering of projects. Reduced capital costs and whole life costs, reduced design, lead in and construction times are all fundamental to our approach.
We typically use value engineering on critical projects (high risk, high value) where there is a strong need for supply chain integration, ongoing recalibration of the design and delivery solution, and a move to best value. We have seen this achieve better value from resources while also improving communication, teamworking, supply chain alignment and understanding of objectives.
We examine each element of the works, whether designed or not, and consider what beneficial alternatives may be utilised from a technical and user viewpoint, along with what effect there could be on design, construction and operational time and costs. Other key factors include the effect on revenue or client income, and the cost of continuing with the operation if there are no improvements.
Our clients, which include Ministry of Justice, Metropolitan Police and Royal Mail, see their priorities and expectations reflected in the final build or refurbishment at optimal cost. When integrated into our project management methodology, they see opportunities to omit items, change or re-instigate work programme specifications, and identify enabling works that can be incorporated into the design. Benchmarking and dynamic functional management tools (including analysis and performance specifications) aid us in delivering projects with low-cost, highbenefit outcomes.
Developing maintenance and project solutions for listed building and heritage sites requires not only an understanding of the applicable legislation, but also of the fabric to be worked on and materials to be used when undertaking repairs and works. Our team is supported by specialist experts, such as consultants, architects, designers, conservators, and supply chain partners, and have the applicable knowledge, skills, and experience to design and develop suitably bespoke solutions for each property.
Following a flood in the basement of a century-old building occupied by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), VINCI Facilities Building Solutions was asked to design a solution to prevent further flooding. Our team were already engaged on a major refurbishment of the rest of the building and were best placed to tackle this project.
Once the area was drained and dried, we worked with the client and consultants, challenging the brief where appropriate and recommending superior approaches. This saw 25 fire doors fully replaced (instead of refurbished), timber skirting replaced with linoleum (to better match the floor design) and redundant services from the ceiling voids removed (to reduce maintenance).
Various works were also conducted to minimise the risk and impact of future flooding, including conducting drain surveys, re-routing the drainage within WCs to improve flow, and increasing the height of electrical sockets.
Embracing technology and utilising digital interfaces within our projects has provided VINCI Facilities Building Solutions and its clients with the means to plan, manage and monitor projects remotely and in great detail via digital twins. Our in-house experts use this technology to create 3D-models during surveys, which allow us to undertake condition surveys and report on works progress during remote meetings, viewing the model as if looking and travelling through the real thing.
For projects that require cladding and external wall insulation remedial works, we use BIM as a tool to better understand the existing structures and the design options for the ‘A2 or better’ compliant solutions required for the issue of the EWS 1 letter.
One key site that is benefitting from this technology is HMP Hewell. The prison has responsibility to maintain a 17th century ruin located on site, with penalties imposed by English Heritage for non-compliance. We have undertaken digital surveys on behalf of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to understand how the structure can be renovated and restored. This has involved creating a digital twin and using the information generated to develop solutions to support the weak points within the structure, understand the consequences of vegetation removal on and around the building, and ultimately restore the ruin and make it structurally safe for the next 70 years.
The benefits to the MoJ are that the surveys are non-invasive, which limits any additional damage to the structure and provides them with a way forward to reduce financial penalties and improve the regime involved with maintaining the structure.
Our team of heritage specialists includes consultants, architects and surveyors working alongside our skilled artisans to provide maintenance and refurbishment to many heritage sites on behalf of owners, trusts and other clients. Heritage revival, restoration, preservation or regeneration is a highly skilled discipline with over £10bn every year spent on the repair, maintenance and upgrade of historic buildings in England and Wales.
Team members hold a variety of heritagerelated accreditations and certifications, ranging from NVQ Level 3 Craft through to Level 7 Master’s degree. Each colleague has a thorough understanding of the environment in which they are working, acutely aware that modern remedies to old construction techniques are often at odds with each other.
Undertaking heritage projects requires access to a range of highly specialised skills. These include:
Our teams have demonstrated their capabilities whilst working on the façade refurbishment and structural repairs to the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle school in South Kensington. Other refurbishments projects include Old Palace Yard (a Grade II listed building for The Parliamentary Estates) and Institute of Civil Engineers HQ in Great George Street, London.
Many of our client environments across the UK demand specialist capabilities and extensive experience, often at short notice. Whilst all project management, technical expertise and oversight is delivered via our own in-house teams, most projects use supply chain partners with whom we have long relationships. Our performance therefore relies on intelligent supplier selection and the alignment of each supplier with our values, standards, and methods.
All supply chain partners hold appropriate accreditation and certification for their chosen field. In addition, they comply with all our requirements, including Constructionline and Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) accreditation.
Working closely with supply chain partners, we share insights and innovation and promote a strong alliance through integrated training, information and instruction.
Our project to refurbish the Japanese Galleries in the British Museum saw us manage a network of eight key contractors, including firms from our own approved contractor list and those specified by the client. Keen to support the local community, we prioritised the use of local supply chain partners whenever possible, which resulted in £446k being spent with businesses from the surrounding region.
The scope of works included specialist contractors to replace the hardwood flooring, refurbish glazed hardwood display cases, repair polished plaster and refurbish a traditional Chasitsu tea house structure, all of which was carried out under the watchful eye of the Project Manager.
We ensure we operate and undertake our duties in line with all regulatory requirements. Whilst many of the listed buildings (or buildings with architectural or historic interest) do not conform with normal building regulations, we renovate and refurbish under the auspices of the additional considerations stated in Part L regs.
We work closely with officers of Historic England and each local authority’s building control department, following their advice and guidance when developing the planned works solution and ensuring we fully understand which regulations will apply and what procedures to follow. Our consultants and designers are suitably accredited to perform their duties in relation to heritage sites, cognizant that they should not develop solutions which would unacceptably alter the character or appearance of such buildings.
6-7 Old Palace Yard is a Grade II listed building, built in Westminster in 1754, that provides offices for members of the House of Lords and their staff. Following a modest refurbishment in the 1990s, the dated facilities were in dire need of full restoration and modernisation in order to improve running costs, energy efficiency and accessibility, as well as to safeguard the building’s historical fabric. Elements of the works required large segments of the historical flooring joists to be removed to provide access for cabling and insulation; we worked with the client’s designers and structural engineers in order to minimise any damage to the joists whilst maintaining compliance with all applicable legislation.
