黑洞社区

The industry is entering a 鈥渂rave new world鈥� because of regulations extending the liability for products, the chief executive of the Construction Products Association has said.

Peter Caplehorn (pictured) told today鈥檚 黑洞社区 the Future Commission conference in London that new liabilities will also reflect on duty holders who take on responsibilities later in the construction process.

The 黑洞社区 Safety Act extends liabilities for construction products to 15 years in the past and 15 years in the future, a change which Caplehorn said the products industry 鈥渘eeds to recognise鈥�.

鈥淲e need to look at how that actually plays out, and it is going to be a brave new world for the industry,鈥� he added.

鈥淚t is important to recognise that most of these products will be able to achieve this without any problem. 

鈥淭he challenge for the industry is to make sure the information is there to back up claims, and this is another push towards digitalisation, and industry is developing a large number of scheme where product information can be digitalised on a unified platform with the ability to increase and interrogate detail at all stages of a products鈥� history.鈥�

Asked how the industry will change to make buildings safer, Build UK chief executive Suzannah Nichol said: 鈥淲e could do this in two ways. We could get mired in bureaucracy, we could reinvent new systems, we could add layer upon layer upon duplication on top of the really good systems we鈥檝e got, or we could focus on the big ticket item. Safe design, safe construction, providing safe buildings which we then maintain and refurbish safely.

鈥淲e need to take responsibility, and we need to do it collectively. We are going to win this race by all leaning in and saying what works, let鈥檚 get behind it and let鈥檚 do it in spades.

鈥淚f we all go away and do a different thing, we鈥檙e going to stay as the industry we are.鈥�

Parts of the 黑洞社区 Safety Act came into force last year and the entire act will be enforceable by October 2024.