Mrs. Judith Hackitt said so Construction news who is positive about the new building safety regulatory regime but, in a speech yesterday, he also warned the sector that he foresees a “fundamental cultural change”.
The author of 2018 Building a safer future The report said it was confident the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), could prevent developers and contractors from burning out.
Speaking exclusively to CNHackitt added: “If you don’t show that you’ve designed something that meets the standards, you can’t put people in that building.”
He also called on contractors to be proactive in changing their practices, rather than waiting for more secondary legislation under the Building Safety Act of 2022.
“If people expect the BSR to be an expert in everything they do, there are going to be problems,” Hackitt said.
The BSR became the building control authority for all high-rise buildings (defined by the government as buildings taller than 18 meters or seven storeys and containing at least two “residential units”) on 1 of October this year. The day before the deadline for registering existing high-rise buildings with the new regulator ended. Despite a slow initial uptake, 14,000 buildings were registered by the deadline.
However, the BSR is still without a permanent boss after Peter Baker retired as the HSE’s chief inspector of buildings in April. And in July, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority described unspecified “significant issues” in the new regulator, although they “appear to be solvable”.
Speaking at the NBS Construction Leaders Summit at London’s Tottenham Stadium, Hackitt hailed the construction industry’s “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to leave behind career working practices to the core.
“This is a culture change. I have said it repeatedly,” he affirmed. “I think there are links and compatibilities with the other agendas, whether they are quality, sustainability, [or] resilience; all of these things lead us on the path to doing better and ensuring that we achieve multiple outcomes and purposes, all at the same time. It’s not about one or the other, we have to do them all. This is a fundamental cultural shift and, of course, regulators will help keep it in place.”
Hackitt added: “It’s so important that we all recognize that we have a part to play in making this new system work – it’s not just up to the regulator to make it happen.”
He mentioned upcoming developments that are likely to lead to further regulatory changes, including the phase two report of the Grenfell Inquiry and new regulation for construction products.
He also advised contractors to consider future risks related to technological advances, such as the possibility of electric vehicle fires in domestic properties. “Simply meeting the requirements of this act is the beginning, because there will be more to come,” Hackitt said at the NBS conference.
He added: “We have to recognize that we are nowhere near the destination yet. This is a long journey, there is more to come and it is not a one-time change. We will be learning as we go over several years.”
The Building Safety Act 2022 will come into force in April 2024, when building control will officially become a regulated profession and all building control inspectors will be required to register with the BSR.
