Each year our Trends & Opportunities Report aims to capture exactly that – the trends, issues, challenges and opportunities shaping UK facilities management, at that point in time and for the near- to mid-term future.  Drawing on our own reporting, knowledge and research, coupled with contributed articles from carefully selected experts, each report captures what’s happening and why in this always-interesting industry, as well as what it means for you, whether you are an FM provider, an in-house FM, an FM-adjacent professional, a student or a researcher.  Many of the report highlights for 2024/25 are set out in this executive summary.  The full content is reserved for full licence holders, as are several of our other unique content features – including the i-FM Contracts Database and the i-FM Top 50 benchmark listing, as well as our full archive of reporting, features, comment and research going back 25 years.  No other FM publication can offer a comparable service. 

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UK FM – Market Overview

UK FM remains, as ever, an interesting and dynamic sector.  FM companies operate in the context of many of the big issues of the day – changes in how and where people work, changes in technology and how they affect people and work, cross-over issues of business and people including productivity and wellbeing, the big topics of sustainability and social value, and more.

Given FM’s position as provider of diverse services to public and private sector organisations of all types and sizes, and its nature as a substantial industry in its own right, it remains a big, complex and often confusing sector. 

Market confidence
The 2024 FM Business Confidence Index report, published in November ’24, found confidence in the business environment slipping from the higher ‘positive’ position evident in the previous year’s figures.  There are plenty of possibilities that can be cited as potential influencing factors in how the business environment was perceived at the time of the survey.

Looking ahead at the coming 12 months, survey respondents’ expectations also reflected caution.  In 2024, 29% expected to see an improved business environment (2023: 42%), 55% expected the coming months to be about the same (2023: 32%) and 16% anticipated worse conditions (2023: 26%).  The shift here is clearly towards that middle ground and away from both real confidence and real concern – best described perhaps as a prevailing ’we’re waiting to see’ stance as far as confidence in the market goes.

Brand assessment
Autumn 2024 also saw publication of the FM Brands survey. The results were confirmation that people in FM generally have a good understanding of the meaning and power of brand.  84% of respondents agreed with the concept that when procuring FM services buying an established, well-recognised brand is important. 

Asked about the most important factors in clients’ decisions to appoint an FM service provider, respondents ranked factors in this way: cost, quality & reputation of service, relevant experience, innovations & technology, sustainability & social impact.

Contract trends
The number of contract wins reported to i-FM varies year by year, not surprisingly, but has broadly settled at a ‘normal’ pattern following the most recent period of significant uncertainty – Covid. 

Based on this reported data, the three-year contract term remains the ‘industry standard’, with almost two-fifths of contracts falling into this category.  The five-year term, accounting for a quarter of these contracts in 2024, has looked increasingly popular post-Covid.  Longer contracts (4+ years) are found predominantly in the public sector.

Top 50
The i-FM Top 50 is the industry’s only published benchmark of the leading multi-discipline service providers in the UK. The collective turnover of these companies as of November 2024 was £22.7bn (in round figures), representing a total employment of approximately 377,800. The turnover figure was notably up on the previous year’s mark of £20.8bn.  The employment figure, in contrast, was down on the previous year’s 391,700, a second year of decrease.

FM Market Landscape

M&A trends

Insight: The UK facilities management sector continues to set records for buying and selling.

The M&A market was steady in 2023, but the FM sector surged ahead by 29% to complete nearly 200 deals.  In each of the last four half-years, FM deal volumes have steadily increased, with deal momentum sustained into 2024, and over 100 FM deals completing in H1 2024.

Insight: Interest in acquisitions focuses especially on several ‘hot spots’ deemed to be ripe for investment.

Hot spots include the hard services, and in particular compliance services; technology-driven businesses, including companies leveraging emerging technologies to streamline operations; and businesses focused on energy transition and net zero targets.

Insight: Hard FM has been consistently in investors’ sights for several years.

M&E and building maintenance transactions have steadily grown as a proportion of total deals. In 2021 these accounted for 31% for deals, and in H1 2024 this had risen to 50%.  Growing scrutiny has resulted in an increased requirement for compliance services, in particular.

Insight: Private equity investors are becoming a key force in shaping the future of FM.

The sector remains highly attractive to PE investors who were responsible for over 60% of activity in 2023, either by direct investment or backing follow-on deals for their portfolio businesses. In H1 2024, the proportion increased to the highest seen yet, with around 68% of deals backed by a financial investor.

Source: BDO

Market performance

Insight: Analysis of £2.1bn in contracts, combined with detailed tracking of the top 30 service providers, reveals an industry in crisis.

Publicly reported contract changes show approximately £450-500m in contract losses among major FM providers in the past 12 months, with one leading provider accounting for an estimated £200m of this. This isn't normal churn; it's market failure.

Insight: The hard FM sector faces fundamental challenges, with technical service delivery failures doubling in critical environments.

The industry has been under-investing in technical capability while over-promising on ‘digital transformation’.  Analysis of leading FM providers found that technical training budgets have declined by 25-35% since 2021.

Insight: The soft FM sector projects growth but assumes business as usual.

With 43% of contracts at risk and providers absorbing unsustainable cost increases, this growth looks increasingly uncertain. Analysis of publicly reported financial data shows that while contract values have increased by approximately 10-15% across major providers, average operating margins have declined by 2-4%, creating an unsustainable margin squeeze.

Insight: Success in 2025 will come from combining genuine technical capability with efficient service delivery.

Service providers must be seen to be delivering measurable improvement.  This will require honest assessment and decisive action. The future of UK facilities management belongs to those who can bridge the gap between aspiration and execution.

Source: Baachu

Challenges & Opportunities

Technology

Insight: The UK government is intensifying plans to revamp and update its digital infrastructure.

The journey from data collection to actionable insights involves multiple steps and tools. By adopting robust data collection methods, utilising effective classification systems and leveraging advanced software, the public sector can unlock the full potential of its data.  Facilities managers can play a strategic role in facilitating this.

Insight: Quality of service and quality of service management are central in public sector strategies, as are issues around sustainability and cybersecurity.

Successful implementation of digital innovations requires a collaborative effort between government entities, the facilities management industry and other stakeholders. By working together, these parties can create a resilient, efficient and sustainable public sector that is well-equipped to meet the challenges of the future.

Source: OCS

Workplace

Insight: How an organisation delivers workplace has a direct impact on critical corporate outcomes.

These include productivity, pride, community, learning and corporate image. With the right information and a clear focus on the right drivers, employers can deliver outstanding employee workplace experience outcomes.

Insight: The average home typically supports the average knowledge worker better than the average office.

Executive leadership teams too often struggle to define what their workplace future strategy should be, focusing on old, established patterns rather than exploring new needs, expectations and opportunities.

Source: Aéto Strategy

Social Value

Insight: Social value has become a unique differentiator in a competitive market.

For facilities management providers working with the public sector, this is a non-negotiable part of doing business.  Private sector clients and investors are also increasingly seeking purpose-led FM partners.

Insight: Research shows that facilities management delivers £3.5m worth of social value per project.

The opportunity in the sector is bigger than this. With £65bn being spent annually in facilities management, research suggests that it could deliver as much as £13bn in additional social value for communities per year.

Source: Social Value Portal

Sustainability

Insight: Changes in ESG reporting requirements and stakeholder expectations open the way for increasing influence of FM at strategic levels.

Changes underway require organisations to move beyond compliance-driven reporting to a more structured and integrated approach that aligns with their financial performance and business strategy.  FM has a key role in this and can position itself to take the lead, demonstrating both effectiveness and value.

Source: Acclaro Advisory

Summing Up

Insight: The UK FM marketplace has seemingly become one that is inherently uncertain, but there is always cause for optimism.

There will always be a need for what FM does.  More than half of companies surveyed in the fourth quarter of 2024 were optimistic about the opportunities ahead, even while many were expressing caution regarding the business environment.  FM has repeatedly proved to be a resilient business, and there is no reason to doubt that will continue to be the case – even while change in the sector continues.

Source: i-FM

THE FULL TRENDS & OPPORTUNITIES 2025 REPORT IS AVAILABLE HERE