Thurston Group attends MPBA webinar

3 min read | Matt Goff | June 2021

We spent today virtually attending the Modular and Portable Building Association’s (MPBA) second live event of the year.

Presenting from the Arden Hotel, the AGM webinar focused on the Marketing, Health and Safety, Learning and Development, and Technical updates. 

The Marketing update from MPBA Marketing Chair, Dominic Beastly, showed how the Association has grown in online communities, and how this benefits members. It also showed how plans are progressing for 2021 to provide greater exposure and more opportunities for members.

Andy King, the MPBA’s Technical Chair, provided a Technical update. This section explored how fire and energy are the two largest areas with regulation changes that will have a significant impact on the entire industry. 

Learning Hub Director, Richard Hipkiss, gave a Learning and Development update. Highlighting the ongoing plans and changes to training courses and NVQ developments and progress with Apprenticeships. 

Finally the Health and Safety update from Brian Sutherland, MPBA’s Health and Safety Chair provided the latest HSE information on covid-19 measures and various areas that may have an impact on the construction industry and what changes are due to take place moving forward.  

Dean Hill, our Bid and Marketing Manager, attended the event. He said, “It’s been a while since attending, but today was a very insightful event which helped highlight some changes that we may need to take into account going forward with any modular and portable building projects. It was great to get an update from the MPBA on a variety of topics. I’m looking forward to the next one. Hopefully all together in person! Thanks again.”

With new fire regulations coming into effect in January 2025, our head of technical, Marc Johnson discusses how Thurston is putting in the groundwork to ensure our products are, not only, exceeding fire regulations but providing clear evidence of performance.


For most people, when you hear the term “modular buildings”, you probably envision identical boxes on a construction site.