It’s always interesting, as we approach the end of any year, to reflect on the past 12 months and look forward to focusing on our next planned priorities. Whether it’s personal resolutions or corporate strategies, reflection and planning are the metaphorical bookends for any successful year.

It’s equally important that we’re able to explain how the work that we’ve completed, and the work that we’re planning, impacts and benefits you, our members.

What happened in 2024?

2024 has been another fantastic year for our members and the sector. Let’s take a look at some of BPCA’s major projects this year.

Subscriptions bands were reviewed

Members on our Finance Working Group have been busy reviewing our subscription bands in preparation for 2025. The previous bands had been in place for many, many years and, in some cases, could be problematic.

For example, there were sometimes quite big leaps in terms of the cost of membership for members who had successfully grown their business.

Additionally, with acquisitions being so prevalent in today’s industry, the turnover of some larger members was significantly larger than our top band had previously catered for.

In response to these challenges, the amount of subscription bands has increased, smoothing out the jumps in fees for growing businesses. As always, you’ll be asked to declare the band for your pest-related turnover, and based on this, we’ll charge you the appropriate subscription fee.

You can see our new subscription bands, effective for 2025, at bpca.org.uk/fees

For most members, particularly small to medium-sized companies, this new subscription structure ensures that they will pay in line with previous years and, in some cases, maybe even slightly less (allowing for inflationary increments, of course).

This change impacts most on larger companies in membership who have grown significantly, in some cases through undertaking major acquisition strategies.

As the new subscription structure has been developed by members, who believe it offers the fairest way to keep our not-for-profit Association supporting members and representing the sector, there has not been the need to extensively consult other than with those larger members who will see the biggest impact.

The sector has plenty of challenges ahead, and your support ensures that BPCA can continue to fight for your toolkit, provide your member benefits, and represent the sector.

If you have any questions about your subscription, please contact membership@bpca.org.uk

How does TrustMark registration benefit my business?

Since March 2024, all Servicing members have been automatically registered with the Trustmark quality scheme.

We’re able to provide this benefit because of the robust, ongoing assessment processes we have in place for membership criteria, which satisfy TrustMark and ensure that BPCA members meet their stringent requirements without the need for further assessment.

BPCA is the only scheme provider in the pest management sector, so this offers a significant benefit, enabling you to grow your business and give your customers peace of mind, reinforcing that you’re a reputable pest management business that takes customer service and professionalism seriously.

Make sure you benefit from the TrustMark logo.

What’s going on with glue boards?

Despite our best efforts with central and devolved governments of the UK, glue boards continue to be a challenge.

Whether you like them or loathe them, we didn’t want to lose a non-chemical solution when the future of biocide regulation is still unclear.

We’ll continue to lobby when the opportunities arise.

What is BPCA doing around public relations?

BPCA undertook a number of public relations activities, including lobbying, advertising, and marketing.

Through these activities, our focus was always on supporting members, whether that was through lobbying governments to protect their toolkit, educating the general public on the value of professional pest management, or driving up professionalism within the sector.

Press coverage in these areas continued to be outstanding throughout 2024. Our team appeared in national and local newspapers, as well as on radio and television, more than ever before. We’ve reached an estimated 91.7 million people at the time of writing. 

We launched the BPCA Manifesto for pest control and are excited to update you on progress with that.

How else did BPCA support its members in 2024?

It’s safe to say that BPCA exists solely to support and represent our member companies and their employees.

Throughout 2024, our technical team took thousands of calls and enquiries supporting you with practical advice, new template documents and best practice guidance. 

Our CPD material continued to reach thousands of technicians online and in person. We had the most ambitious events calendar ever, with a mix of technical and business subjects on webinars, Forums and, of course, the largest PestEx ever. 

Members have saved considerable amounts with benefits available from our partners, such as TradePoint, Dell, Quest, and more. New benefits are being added constantly, including a van leasing offer that went live in September. For everything you can take advantage of - check out our Member Benefits page.

We even won highly commended for member support at the Memcom awards 2024, for our work on member benefits packages.

Your fellow members who volunteer on our Committees have worked hard on your behalf: 

• Your Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee has released an innovative toolkit for all members 
• Your Professional Standards Committee has released its first draft of the qualifications framework and a consultation to go alongside it; lots of work on this is ongoing
• Your Outreach and Communications Committee has been working on a member-only app and produced four issues of PPC magazine
• Your Servicing Committee and Manufacturers & Distributors Committee merged to form a new Technical Committee, supporting deeper collaboration between the people who make our products and the people who use them.   

So what’s happening in 2025?

Your subscriptions helped achieve so much in 2024, and there is even more planned for 2025, which you’ll hear and read about through our comms channels.

Don't forget to follow us on social media to keep up-to-date with all the latest news.

Changes to Subcontracting

The rules around subcontracting to non-member companies have changed.

While previously we only allowed members to subcontract to other members (and clearly, we would hope that is still your first choice!), we appreciate that this is not always possible for some very specialist pest management services. 

We have now removed this requirement for all members and instead developed a new checklist that will help ensure your subcontracting activities are conducted well. Please keep in mind that we can only support you as a member when things go wrong if you follow this checklist. 

The subcontracting checklist is available to download at
bpca.org.uk/library 

Remember, members are the lifeblood of the Association, and through your participation, we can see that there’s nothing we can’t achieve together.

We hope you’ve all had a profitable year and send you our best wishes for an even better 2025.