CIOB response to 'Building a Safer Future' consultation

Background

'Building a Safer Future' set out proposals from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for a “radically new building and fire safety system”. The proposals built on the recommendations of the independent review led by Dame Judith Hackitt which proposed fundamental reform of building safety requirements in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017.

The consultation period for the proposals ran from 6 June 2019 to 31 July 2019.

Recommendations

Having submitted a full response, the CIOB was broadly supportive of the 53 recommendations to establish a new regulatory framework and drive culture change to create and maintain safe buildings. It has been active in supporting this reform, participating in the Industry Response Group (IRG), the Competency Steering Group (CSG) as well as several working groups.

In its aim to identify the main issues either promoting or preventing the delivery of quality in construction, the CIOB was involved with various government initiatives. In addition, its Construction Quality Commission, led by past CIOB presidents, had been working with members and other industry organisations.

The result of the Commission’s work has been the launch of a course in Construction Quality Management, the publication of a new Code of Quality Management and the development of a massive open online course (MOOC) on quality, which will go live in late 2019.

“The success of the new regime is heavily dependent on how the new Building Safety Regulator is constituted and how it operates. The consultation document contains few details on this," said Eddie Tuttle, CIOB Director of Policy, Research & Public Affairs.

He added: "The CIOB would like to see more information on the plans and to have the opportunity to contribute to the development of a model which provides a robust regime in the future. CIOB members across the industry, including project managers, site supervisors and those who work in public and private sector building control, will all be affected by this and must be consulted on the operation of the regulator.”

The full CIOB response, which has been informed by several CIOB members with a background in fire safety and building regulations can be found on the CIOB’s Policy web site: ‘Building a Safer Future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system consultation.’

About this article

This article is based on a piece published by the CIOB on its website in August 2019 and can be accessed here.

Other articles by CIOB on Designing Buildings Wiki can be found here.

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--CIOB