Building for the future: Scott Camp on growth, partnerships and the future of Wates Smartspace
We sat down with Scott Camp, Managing Director of Wates Smartspace – the refurbishment and fit out arm of Wates Construction – to discuss the changing demands of the commercial refurbishment market, the importance of long-term partnerships, and what’s next for the business.
Who is Wates Smartspace?
We’re a specialist refurbishment, fit out and decarbonisation business, helping public and private sector organisations across the UK transform existing buildings into spaces that meet the evolving needs of the people who use them.
Our work spans commercial offices, banking environments, retail and distribution centres, alongside projects in healthcare, education, justice, emergency services and wider government estates. We pride ourselves on delivering complex refurbishments within live, secure, and listed environments, where careful planning and collaboration are critical.
Ultimately, our role is about unlocking value from existing schemes and futureproofing them for years to come. Whether that’s improving sustainability, enhancing workplace experience or modernising buildings for future use, we help our customers get more from the spaces they already have.
What has the past 12 months looked like for your business?
It’s been a very positive year for Smartspace. Financially, we’ve seen continued growth, growing our annual turnover by 67% over the past four years (2021-2025), and our team expanding to support a growing pipeline of work.
We’ve been able to complete some of our most complex projects to date, from the award-winning Trinity Road project for Lloyds in Halifax, to starting work on a complex data centre modernisation project. We’ve also continued to expand our expertise delivering in live, secure environments, like a new 30-hearing room court at HMCTS Newgate. None of it would be possible without the fantastic work of our people, and I’m incredibly proud of my teams and the business we’ve created to date.
What new trends are you seeing in the refurbishment market?
Customers are looking at refurbishment much more strategically than they did previously, and there is a real understanding that new does not always equal better, when considering property portfolios as a whole.
Sustainability remains the biggest driver. Refurbishment improves building performance and reduces emissions, while avoiding much of the disruption, cost and embodied carbon associated with rebuilding or relocating. This is particularly important when clients are looking to reduce carbon across whole property portfolios rather than on an asset-by-asset basis. Smart technologies are helping to support this, but the opportunity goes further. As technology develops at pace, it is helping us build smarter and more efficiently, while enabling us to help clients introduce solutions that make their properties work more effectively.
Following a few uncertain years of increased remote working, many businesses have now shifted back into the office, and there is more pressure on spaces to again support wellbeing, talent attraction and retention, and be a place where people genuinely enjoy spending time.
This starts at home, and we redesigned and refurbished our Warrington office using these principles, raising the building’s efficiency from an EPC C rating to EPC A+, and creating a considerate workplace structure which supports teams working together.
You pride yourselves on long-term customer partnerships. How are those relationships maintained?
For us, successful partnerships are built on trust, consistency and genuine collaboration.
We work hard to become an extension of our customers’ teams, understanding not only an individual project’s requirements, but how it fits into a business’ wider objectives, both now and in the future.
Many of our partnerships span not only years, but decades, and that level of trust comes from consistency. It might sound simple, but we believe in doing exactly what we say we’re going to do, on time and on budget, regardless of market conditions. Every Smartspace employee commits to our Customer Principles when joining, which outlines this ethos.
We’re proud to maintain a Net Promoter Score of 80+, while 90+% of our work comes from repeat customers. Those statistics reflect relationships that have been developed over decades with private organisations like Lloyds and M&S – who we recently celebrated our 25th year working with – to public-sector bodies like the Ministry of Justice, Government Property Agency and Royal Mail and each year, we’re continuing to grow this customer base further.
What does success look like for Wates Smartspace over the next three to five years?
Success means continuing to expand while staying true to what has made Smartspace successful – our customers. Growth means nothing to me if it’s unsustainable, and while we are an ambitious business, I would not want to fall into the trap of chasing big wins only to fall short of our – and our partners’ – high standards.
Most importantly, success will continue to be measured by the value we create for our customers and the opportunities we create for our people. If we can continue delivering exceptional spaces, developing our teams and technological capabilities, and building long-term partnerships, we’ll be in a very strong position for the future.
Building a partnership that delivers over decades
Few relationships demonstrate the value of long-term collaboration better than the partnership between Wates Smartspace and Lloyds Banking Group.
Spanning more than 17 years, the relationship has evolved well beyond a traditional client-contractor model. Instead, it is built on a shared commitment to trust, transparency and creating lasting value across Lloyds’ estate. By developing a deep understanding of Lloyds’ operational, commercial, and sustainability objectives, Smartspace has become a strategic delivery partner, supporting the bank’s ongoing investment in its existing assets, both on the high street and in corporate offices.
That approach came to life at Trinity Road, where Smartspace delivered the £100m+ transformation of Lloyds’ iconic Grade II-listed former flagship office in Halifax. The project combined heritage preservation with modern workplace design, sustainability and employee wellbeing, creating a future-ready home for 3,500 colleagues while remaining true to the building’s history. Delivered on time and on budget, it is a testament to what can be achieved when trust and collaboration are embedded from the outset. Most recently, it received significant industry recognition, picking up wins at the BCO Awards and Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber Awards, and being shortlisted at the Building Awards.
For Smartspace, however, the recognition is not in awards, but in Lloyds continuing to place its trust in the business, earned through reliable delivery, honesty, and a shared commitment to creating places that help people to thrive. Now delivering the commercial fit-out of a 10-storey office building in Callaghan Square in Cardiff, Smartspace is applying the lessons learnt at Trinity to transform the building into a modern, sustainable Grade A workplace for more than 3,000 Lloyds employees.
