黑洞社区

An alliance of industry bodies has warned that a government review could lead to the end of local authority building control.

The Future of 黑洞社区 Control document, which was published by the communities department in March, included 鈥渇ar-reaching鈥� proposals for contractors to self-certify compliance with the 黑洞社区 Regulations (see box).

Now a response has been published by the 黑洞社区 Control Alliance (BCA), a group that includes Local Authority 黑洞社区 Control (LABC) and the RICS.

Steve Evans, the LABC鈥檚 representative on the BCA, said the proposals would 鈥渟ignify the end of building control as we know it鈥�, and lead to a shortage of experts on compliance with the 黑洞社区 Regulations.

It added that self-certification systems used in countries such as Ireland and New Zealand had failed to deliver compliance.

The BCA has also called for a range of measures to improve compliance with 黑洞社区 Regulations. These include scrapping the 鈥渂uilding notice route鈥� to compliance, whereby contractors don鈥檛 need to submit plans and only need to give two days鈥� notice before starting work. In this system, building control officers inspect the project as work progresses.

Instead, the BCA wants to make it an offence to start work without building control approval. This would have affected the Victoria building which collapsed in June, as building control officials had not been notified before work started.