Thoughts & reflections from 2022

2022 has been a big year for us and as things start to wind down for the festive season, it’s good to look back over what has been a very busy time here at JBB Knotweed Solutions! What a start to the year it was! Our management team James, Lyndsay, and Douglas successfully completed Kilimanjaro in March and raised a lot of money for good causes in the process. Both commercial and residential property sectors were extremely active this year, only really tailing off during Q4. Undoubtably current macro-economic factors will continue to have a baring on property markets going forward, and whilst things will most likely continue to slow down going into next year, re-financing and property transactions will still be big drivers for the invasive weed sector. It was also interesting to see the impact of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance note: Japanese Knotweed and Residential Property changes that were announced in March 2022. The industry had waited with its breath-held to find out what changes would be made to the existing  2012 RICS paper. The output was generally recognised as being pragmatic in its approach and the key changes were underpinned using an evidence based approach (7m Rhizome buffer zone saw an updated approach, off-site boundary distances reduced from 7m to 3m, the assessment categorisation was completely restructured, distance to habitable spaces no longer affects categorisation, an assessment of amenity use was introduced, and advice for lenders was added). The ‘Japanese Knotweed industry’ is still relatively immature and, after a long wait, it is good to have updated guidance in place. I also hope that this continues to see the media (and some industry practitioners….) move away from their reputation for scaremongering. We feel very strongly and are proud that this (scaremongering) approach has no place in what we do at JBB Knotweed Solutions – we stand in the camp of more education & data based conversations, and less ‘chicken little’ voices of doom! 2022 also saw us undertake some fantastic projects, including a body of work with Lidl Scotland, where we supported them to assess their exposure risks associated with Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) on over 90 stores across Scotland – If you haven’t read about this awesome project, you can check out the case study here: LIDL Scotland Aside from Japanese Knotweed, this year saw a rise in the number of clients contacting us regarding Bamboo on and around their property. This theme was one that was widely discussed at the 2022 PCA Invasive Weed Conference in November and an area of growth (see what I did there…) that we expect to continue into 2023. The impacts of several lockdowns across the country seemed to give rise to some fairly extreme Giant Hogweed sites this year and unfortunately we continue to receive reports of burn injuries, with one significant case involving a young child this summer. Again, education plays a primary role in prevention here and we are working on some exciting projects that will hopefully return high benefit on this front.  We have redesigned our training curriculum this year and are very engaged within our community to increase people’s awareness and understanding around INNS. Sadly, we also continued to encounter sites throughout the year that had challenges made worse by lack of education, inadvertent disturbance, or ‘best intention’ attempts to deal with INNS growth – it is really frustrating to see clients take on avoidable costs and delays. We cannot stress this enough! If you find Japanese Knotweed or any other invasive species on your property….. don’t touch it! Call in an expert. We covered a lot of miles last year and 2022 saw us embark on our goal of having all our surveyors using electric vehicles. Our commitment to reduce our environmental impact was impeded by extended global lead times, however we remain focused on achieving our EV fleet objectives in early 2023. It has been great to raise money and awareness for a number of great causes this year, including The Trussle Trust, Beautiful Inside & Out, & the Kilsyth Annual Christmas Toy Drive. Without a doubt our most important and rewarding work of 2022! As we continue to expand our operation across Scotland, it was also a big year for the structure of the business, with the addition of Douglas Anderson as Managing Director. As a group, the JBB family are really excited about the direction and growth of the business going into 2023! Most importantly…. we have met a whole bunch of new people and had a great time in the process! As we sign off for 2022, we would like to thank everyone for all their support this year and wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy New Year when it comes. Lang May Your Lum Reek!