It’s said, with some truth, that the private security sector does well in a recession. It depends what security service you offer.
Empty commercial property does not require a guard in reception or the car park, but it needs securing, whether from squatters or vermin. G4S Security Services (UK) with Clearway Services has launched a specialist vacant property service. The firms seek to provide a solution to a growing problem faced by commercial property owners and managing agents: how to protect an asset from depreciating – rapidly, if there is a flood or arson? Richard Fenton-Jones of G4S and Matthew Brooks of Clearway Services spoke to Mark Rowe.
Matt Brooks, commercial director of Clearway, described one recent job, given by the receiver: securing a commercial bakery. It required security doors, and screens on the windows; and alarms for remote monitoring; blocks to deter travellers from moving in; also, something doing about the 11 tonnes of half-baked dough, that overflowed from machinery. If left, it might attract rats. Certainly it would not look good if prospective tenants at a viewing had to wade through three foot of dough (or past graffiti, or fly-tipping or sharps – used drug addicts’ needles). Hence the service offered by Clearway – with previous experience mainly in securing void residential properties; and G4S, namely their Belfast monitoring centre, unveiled last summer (pictured) and featured in the October 2008 print issue of Profesional Security Magazine. Depending on what a client wants, the security contractor can do random patrols, or key-holding response.
At a pub or industrial unit, the receiver might come in; or the tenant might simply hand back the keys. Such an empty property might have power and telephone, so alarms can work; or it might not. Clearway have a battery-powered alarm system, that works through a mobile telephone-type SIM. Any data from the passive infra-red detectors goes by text message to G4S. It’s a way to manage an empty property – a contractor such as a plumber who needs entry is given a PIN code. A portfolio manager, then, can review (over the web) when contractors are entering and leaving a building. Matthew Brooks made the point that insurers are ever more aware of the risks posed by empty premises. If such premises are on your books, do you know liability: does the insurer demand weekly checks, or monitoring?
Richard Fenton-Jones, Managing Director, Monitoring and Response, G4S Security Services (UK) said: “The economic downturn has already resulted in a surge in vacant premises across the country. There are a number of risks associated with vacant properties – these risks can be mitigated if preventative action is taken.” He and Matthew Brooks of (Kent and Sheffield-based) Clearway felt that empty properties were a national problem, though in London it’s more visible.
