Built environment governance and professionalism: the end of laissez-faire (again)

[edit] Introduction

Buildings and Cities is an international, open access, peer-reviewed, academic journal publishing high-quality research and analysis on the interplay between the different scales of the built environment: buildings, blocks, neighbourhoods, cities, national building stocks and infrastructures. The journal focuses on built environment policy, practices and outcomes and the range of economic, environmental, political, social and technological issues occurring over the full life cycle. It provides a platform for new ideas, innovative approaches and research-based insights that can help improve the built environment. Buildings & Cities aims to make research accessible and relevant to academics, policymakers, practitioners, clients, and occupants. As part of this some of the most relevant articles will be featured on Designing Buildings wiki and its relevant microsites to share with a wider audience.

[edit] Governance and professionalism

Buildings and Cities recently published an article that may be of wider interest to the readers of Designing Buildings as it addresses issues of the regulation of the built environment - particularly the roles of professional institutes and government, and getting the balance of regulation right between these two.

The paper examines the decline of professionalism in the UK’s built environment sector over the past 40 years, linking it to neo-liberal deregulation and market dominance. A shift that has eroded ethics, competence, and public trust, leading to failures such as the Grenfell Tower disaster. The author calls for a renewed, collaborative model of professionalism based on public interest, accountability, and evidence-based practice. Strengthening ethics, competence, and collective governance among professional institutions being seen as vital to restoring trust, ensuring safety, and addressing future challenges like climate change and AI.

The abstract and policy relevance statement are outlined below whilst the full article is free (open access) and can be found via the following link here: https://journal-buildingscities.org/articles/10.5334/bc.713

[edit] Abstract of the paper

The regulation of the built environment depends upon a combination of governmental regulation, robust professional practice and market forces. The balance between these varies over time and different jurisdictions. This essay considers the recurrent rise and fall of the principle of laissez-faire. The growth and public purpose objectives of the professional institutions are examined, as is their decline under the ascendency of neoliberalism in the UK, though the analysis is relevant to other countries. A reconsideration of professional attitudes and attitudes to the professions resulting from the catastrophic fire in the UK’s Grenfell Tower residential block in 2017 is currently underway. A return to the founding objectives of the institutions is recommended if they are to equip themselves with renewed purpose and to avoid over-restrictive regulation by government. Any such renewal needs to include a focus on behaviour, ethics, competence, research-based evidence and, above all, a transformation in the governance of the professions.

[edit] Policy relevance

The recent history and current public purpose obligations of governmental and non-governmental organisations are considered to ensure that built environment professionals under their jurisdiction have the competence, authority and freedom of action to make reasonably certain that those obligations are fulfilled effectively. An approach to appropriate organisational governance and policy following several high-profile building failures, including the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as future environmental challenges, is described and discussed. A coordinated system of governance involving both market regulation and professionalism (guided by robust institutions) have an essential role to play in making an equitable and rules-based economy work and delivering both short-and long-term objectives.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• A Higher Bar. Achieving a competence led built environment.
• Best practice.
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• Competence framework.
• Competence framework for project managers in the built environment launched.
• Competence management.
• Grenfell Tower.
• Hackitt review of the building regulations and fire safety, final report.
• Learning.
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• Professional conduct.
• Professional practice.
• Recruiting and retaining talent in the construction industry.
• Skills gap.

--Buildings and Cities