Beyond Compliance: How the CRE Sector Can Meet Martyn’s Law with Confidence
Executive summary
Martyn’s Law introduces a new baseline for public protection across the UK, placing clear and ongoing obligations on organisations responsible for publicly accessible spaces. For the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) sector, this represents a structural change in how security risk, preparedness and governance must be managed and evidenced.
Zinc provides a proven, operational platform that enables CRE owners, managing agents and developers to meet these obligations in a proportionate, auditable and scalable way.
Across more than 500 live commercial real estate assets, Zinc customers have demonstrated measurable outcomes:
- 60% faster incident response, driven by automated alerts, guided workflows and real-time communications
- 70% improvement in compliance performance, through digitised audits, patrols and evidence capture
- 55% increase in operational uptime, supporting business continuity and asset performance
- 45% reduction in uninsured losses, through early detection, structured response and defensible reporting
For boards and investors, Zinc turns Martyn’s Law from a regulatory risk into an operational strength, delivering improved resilience, stronger governance and demonstrable protection of asset value.
Why Martyn’s Law matters for CRE
CRE portfolios often include complex, high-footfall environments such as shopping centres, mixed-use developments, office campuses, transport-adjacent assets and leisure destinations. These environments typically involve:
- Multiple tenants with differing risk profiles
- Shared responsibility between landlords, managing agents and occupiers
- A mix of public and semi-public access
- Increased scrutiny from insurers, regulators and local authorities
Martyn’s Law will require organisations to proactively assess terrorism risk, implement proportionate mitigation measures, and maintain clear evidence that these steps are embedded into day-to-day operations. For CRE, this cannot be addressed through static policies or one-off risk assessments alone.
This is where Zinc adds value.
Zinc: Built for risk, compliance and real-world operations
Zinc provides a centralised digital platform that helps organisations understand risk, act, and demonstrate compliance across complex property portfolios.
Rather than treating Martyn’s Law as a standalone requirement, Zinc enables CRE organisations to embed counter-terrorism preparedness into everyday security, safety and operational workflows.
At its core, Zinc connects intelligence, preparedness, response and assurance in one operational layer.
Core capabilities aligned to Martyn’s Law
1) Preparedness and compliance management
Zinc enables consistent audits, inspections, patrols and checks across single assets or entire estates. Activities are digitally recorded, time-stamped and fully auditable, replacing paper-based or spreadsheet-driven processes.
Customers using Zinc report a 70% uplift in compliance performance, driven by standardised procedures, automated reminders and real-time visibility of overdue or failed actions. This directly supports Martyn’s Law expectations around ongoing risk assessment and proportional mitigation.
2) Situational awareness and threat intelligence
Zinc integrates analyst-verified threat intelligence with dynamic Location Risk Profiles, enabling CRE teams to understand site-specific exposure to terrorism, crime and environmental risks.
Threat data is overlaid directly onto live portfolios, allowing security leaders to prioritise resources and adjust postures based on real-world risk, a critical requirement under Martyn’s Law’s risk-based approach.
3) Incident and crisis management
Zinc provides guided, compliant workflows aligned to SOPs and emergency procedures. Automated alerts, tasking and escalation ensure incidents are managed consistently and at speed.
Organisations using Zinc have achieved 60% faster incident response, improving outcomes for people, assets and business continuity while creating a clear audit trail of decisions and actions.
4) Communications and coordination
Zinc delivers targeted, multi-channel communications via mobile app, SMS, email and WhatsApp. Messages can be geo-targeted, role-specific and fully auditable.
This capability supports evacuation, reoccupation and stakeholder updates, while reducing confusion and reliance on ad-hoc communications during high-pressure events.
5) Audit, assurance and evidence
Every action within Zinc is logged automatically. From patrol completion and incident updates to communications and management approvals, a complete evidential record is maintained.
This has contributed to a 45% reduction in uninsured losses for Zinc customers, by improving accountability, accelerating claims handling and providing defensible proof of due diligence.
6) Integrations and smart building alignment
Zinc integrates with access control, VMS, body-worn cameras, footfall and IoT systems, creating a single operational view across physical and digital security layers.
This integrated approach has supported a 55% improvement in operational uptime, reducing disruption across complex, high-footfall environments.
Together, these capabilities replace fragmented tools with a single source of truth for risk, response and governance.
Importantly, Zinc supports proportionality. Organisations can clearly demonstrate that mitigation measures align with the specific risk profile of each site, as required under Martyn’s Law.
Turning policy into practical mitigation
A common challenge for CRE organisations is bridging the gap between high-level policy and on-the-ground delivery.
Zinc supports this by enabling teams to define, assign and track mitigation actions, including:
- Physical security measures such as access control, surveillance and hostile vehicle mitigation
- Operational procedures, including incident response, evacuation planning and escalation protocols
- Coordination with tenants, contractors and third-party service providers
- Ongoing review and continuous improvement cycles
Actions are clearly owned, monitored and auditable, ensuring that safety measures are not only designed, but consistently delivered and maintained.
Demonstrating compliance and governance readiness
Martyn’s Law will place increased emphasis on evidence, not just that appropriate steps exist, but that they are actively governed, reviewed and improved.
Zinc supports this by providing:
- Centralised documentation and process across assets and portfolios
- Time-stamped audit trails showing actions, decisions, communications and reviews
- Clear ownership and accountability across landlords, managing agents and service partners
For boards, insurers and regulators, this provides confidence that security and counter-terrorism preparedness is controlled, proportionate and defensible.
“With Zinc, we’re no longer chasing evidence or relying on manual reports. Every patrol, incident and decision is logged automatically, which makes demonstrating compliance far simpler and far more credible.”
Security Manager, Large Mixed-Use Building
By embedding Martyn’s Law preparedness into an operational platform, compliance becomes an ongoing capability rather than a reactive exercise.
Tailored value across the CRE ecosystem
Martyn’s Law affects different CRE stakeholders in different ways. Zinc is designed to support these distinct responsibilities while maintaining a shared, auditable operational framework.
Managing agents
Managing agents are often responsible for day-to-day compliance, coordination and reporting across diverse portfolios.
Zinc enables managing agents to:
- Standardise security and compliance processes across multiple client assets
- Demonstrate performance and accountability to owners and landlords
- Coordinate tenants, contractors and service partners within a single platform
- Reduce administrative burden through automation and real-time reporting
This supports consistent Martyn’s Law compliance without increasing operational overhead.
REITs and asset owners
For REITs and institutional owners, the focus is on governance, assurance and protection of long-term asset value.
Zinc provides:
- Portfolio-level visibility of risk, readiness and incident trends
- Clear, defensible evidence for boards, insurers and regulators
- Data-driven insights to inform investment, insurance and resilience strategies
- Confidence that compliance is embedded operationally, not delegated informally
This enables owners to manage regulatory risk while strengthening investor confidence.
Developers and landlords
Developers and landlords must ensure assets are designed and operated with long-term safety and resilience in mind.
Zinc supports this by:
- Embedding Martyn’s Law preparedness from day one of operation
- Providing a digital operational layer that scales as assets mature
- Supporting safe handover from construction to live operations
- Enhancing the marketability of assets through demonstrable security maturity
Supporting training and operational readiness
People play a critical role in Martyn’s Law compliance. From front-of-house teams to facilities managers, individuals must understand their responsibilities in prevention and response.
Zinc supports this through desktop exercises, readiness tracking and consistent procedures that are reinforced across landlords, managing agents and occupiers.
Designed for scale and long-term resilience
Martyn’s Law will not be a one-off compliance milestone. Risk profiles will change, guidance will evolve, and property portfolios will continue to grow and adapt.
Zinc is designed to support:
- Portfolio-wide oversight without losing site-level detail
- Consistent standards across diverse asset types and occupiers
- Continuous improvement as guidance, threats and best practice mature
- Alignment with wider resilience, safety, insurance and ESG strategies
“Managing compliance across a multi-site portfolio used to mean multiple systems and inconsistent reporting. Zinc gives us a single, trusted view of risk and readiness across every building, while still allowing local teams to operate effectively.”
Portfolio Manager, National CRE Portfolio
For CRE leaders, this provides confidence that today’s investment in preparedness will continue to deliver value over the long term.
Benefits for CRE organisations
By using Zinc to prepare for Martyn’s Law, CRE organisations can realise tangible operational and commercial benefits:
- Stronger regulatory confidence through clear, auditable evidence of proportionate risk management
- Improved incident response times driven by automation, integrated process and real-time intelligence
- Reduced operational risk and uninsured losses through early detection and structured mitigation
- Greater consistency across assets without removing local flexibility
- Improved tenant and occupier confidence through visible, professional security and communication
- Lower administrative burden by replacing manual reporting and fragmented systems
Looking ahead
For the CRE sector, Martyn’s Law represents more than a regulatory obligation. It is an opportunity to strengthen public trust, improve resilience and demonstrate leadership in safety and security.
Zinc helps organisations approach this in a structured, proportionate and defensible way, turning compliance into an operational advantage.
To learn how Zinc can support your portfolio in preparing for Martyn’s Law and strengthening your wider risk and compliance framework, get in touch with our team to start the conversation.
+44 (0)20 3989 4859 
info@zinc.systems 