One of the most active spaces of consolidation in UK services this year is not in technology or healthcare. It is in the ordinary work of keeping buildings safe and lived in, and regulation is what is driving it.

Spend on repairs and maintenance by social landlords reached a record £10bn in the year to March 2025, up 13% on the year before and around 42% higher in real terms than before the pandemic, according to the Regulator of Social Housing. Awaab's Law, in force since October 2025, now requires landlords to deal with damp and mould within set timeframes and with emergency hazards within 24 hours, and its scope widens to cover fire, electrical and structural risks in 2026. This is work that has to be done, to a rising standard, on someone else's deadline.

That mix of steady demand and a legal clock is what private capital wants. Fire and building safety has become one of the busiest areas for acquisitions this year. Ranger Fire and Security, set up by its backers in early 2024, passed £75m of revenue and around 25 acquisitions before Inflexion took a majority stake in June 2026.

For founders, the message is that a well run maintenance or safety business will sell comfortably while this demand holds, especially where the income comes from public budgets and does not rely on the owner being there. For buyers, the danger is paying for that quality twice over. We know from recent conversations with acquirers that many would rather walk away than pay 15 times earnings, on the simple view that in a crowded market the money is made by running the business better, not by the price paid to get in.

Anyone who read our November 2024 piece on accounting firm roll ups will know the shape of this. The difference is the regulator. Demand here does not rise and fall with confidence. It is written into law, and there are only so many good independent firms to buy. This is a roll up built on obligation rather than optimism.