黑洞社区

The author of the government鈥檚 review of fire safety regulations has said the construction industry lacks the leadership to make the necessary changes to make itself safe, describing common practices as 鈥渏aw dropping鈥�.

Speaking at a conference for the construction products manufacturing industry, Dame Judith Hackitt (pictured), who has just been chosen to lead the board creating a new building safety regulator, said the industry fell back on 鈥渆xcuses鈥� to justify its inability to improve. 

Her comments last Thursday come in the wake of the restart of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, in which many of the firms involved have sought to blame other companies or the government for the failure of the tower鈥檚 refurbishment to meet the requirements of building regulations.

She said: 鈥淭here are people who are already making moves and who are already doing the right things. But my observation would be that there鈥檚 not enough of it, there鈥檚 a lack of leadership, there鈥檚 a lack of real drive and collective commitment to make this happen.鈥�

She also complained that change was happening too slowly, despite her review of fire regulations having been published over 18 months ago, and the government having set out its plans for how things will change.

She said: 鈥淚 still get this strong sense that this industry is waiting to be told what to do by this regulator. And I don鈥檛 know why. Because you know what you need to do. And I believe you can get on with it. I believe it is folly not to get on with it.鈥�

Hackitt described some of the practices she had seen in the industry while researching her review as 鈥渏aw-dropping鈥�, with the lack of proper change-management on projects as 鈥渘othing short of gob-smacking鈥�. She said: 鈥淲hen people say to me things like 鈥榯he architect鈥檚 not allowed on [the building] site鈥�, I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hat? Why? What鈥檚 going on?鈥� Why would you exclude someone who came up with the concept [of a building] in the first place, unless you鈥檙e trying to cheat.鈥�

Hackitt is chairing the transition board for the new 黑洞社区 Safety Regulator which is being set up, following the recommendations of her review, to ensure the safety of high-risk buildings from fire. The body is due to start working in shadow form in advance of legislation which will give it statutory legal powers next year.

She said the fragmentation of the industry, which sees tens of thousands of firms engaged in multiple layers of subcontracting on even small jobs, was too often used as an excuse for not taking fire safety more seriously.

鈥淲e need a culture change in this industry. You need to care about the buildings that you are in the supply chain for. You need to care that the people who are going to live in them and work in them and sleep in them feel safe and are safe. Until you care, this system will not change and will not work.

鈥淭here鈥檚 too many excuses and the one I hear more often than not is that this is such a fragmented industry. Well perhaps you need to change the level of fragmentation within the industry.鈥�

She also called on the industry to adopt less 鈥渁dversarial practices鈥� and recognise that project teams should be collaborating around delivery of a 鈥渃ollective purpose鈥�.

She said the current system of individuals and firms taking out professional indemnity insurance wasn鈥檛 working in the interest of projects鈥� clients, calling for more use of collective project insurance instead.