Building a Safer Future

Earlier this year, Dame Judith Hackitt released her final report for overhauling building regulations and improving fire safety in the construction supply chain. With many positives, it drew a mixed response from construction stakeholders, with some praising its focus and some seeing it as a missed opportunity to correct decades of poor performance.

In a long and detailed report, the issues identified by Hackitt: “Have helped to create a cultural issue across the sector, which can be described as a ‘race to the bottom’ caused either through ignorance, indifference, or because the system does not facilitate good practice. There is insufficient focus on delivering the best quality building possible, in order to ensure that residents are safe, and feel safe.”

Those key issues underpinning the system failure include:
• Ignorance – regulations and guidance are not always read by those who need to, and when they do the guidance is misunderstood and misinterpreted.

• Indifference – the primary motivation is to do things as quickly and cheaply as possible rather than to deliver quality homes which are safe for people to live in. When concerns are raised, by others involved in building work or by residents, they are often ignored. Some of those undertaking building work fail to prioritise safety, using the ambiguity of regulations and guidance to game the system.

• Lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities – there is ambiguity over where responsibility lies, exacerbated by a level of fragmentation within the industry, and precluding robust ownership of accountability.

• Inadequate regulatory oversight and enforcement tools – the size or complexity of a project does not seem to inform the way in which it is overseen by the regulator. Where enforcement is necessary, it is often not pursued. Where it is pursued, the penalties are so small as to be an ineffective deterrent.

Hackitt recommendations include a simpler but more robust approach to the construction and on-going management of high-rise residential buildings. Key to this is the new regulatory framework focused, in the first instance, on multi-occupancy HRRBs that are 10 storeys or more in height and a new Joint Competent Authority (JCA) comprising Local Authority Building Standards, fire and rescue authorities and the Health and Safety Executive to oversee better management of safety risks in these buildings (through safety cases) across their entire life cycle.

A more effective testing regime with clearer labelling and product traceability, including a periodic review process of test methods and the range of standards in order to drive continuous improvement and higher performance and encourage innovative product and system design under better quality control.

This regime would be underpinned by a more effective market surveillance system operating at a national level. Creating a ‘golden thread of information’ and obligating the creation of a digital record for new HRRBs from initial design intent through to construction and including any changes that occur throughout occupation. This package of building information will be used by the dutyholders to demonstrate to the regulator the safety of the building throughout its life cycle.

Certainly one salient point made by Dame Hackitt is that we must begin thinking about ‘buildings as a system’ so that the different layers of protection that may be required to make that building safe are considered on a case-by-case basis – rather than the building being a series of disparate and potentially conflicted products.

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