黑洞社区

Industry leaders voiced concerns about competence and resourcing challenges at the 黑洞社区 Safety Regulator during a panel at today鈥檚 黑洞社区 the Future conference.

Speaking on a panel titled 鈥楾he future of building safety鈥�, Andy Mullins, head of quality at the Hill Group, said that there is a resource and competence issue at the 黑洞社区 Safety Regulator (BSR).  

Mullins said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the regulator is currently competent鈥�, stating that 鈥渁 lot of their staff don鈥檛 have a great deal of knowledge in building control鈥�. 

He described Hill鈥檚 experience of the new regulatory regime so far as 鈥渘ot great鈥�. 

He said Hill was the first housebuilder to have gone through the gateway two process on a new build, which was approved three weeks ago.  

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But he said it took 27 weeks to be approved, while another application has been pending for 31 weeks. Hill Group has a reclad scheme that has been waiting to be assessed by the BSR for 24 weeks. 

Mullins mentioned that one of the registered providers Hill is working with has calculated a weekly cost of 拢49,000 due to the delays in passing through gateway two. He said this was 鈥渁 significant viability issue鈥� and, in this case, it will affect the RP鈥檚 ability to develop in the future.

He also said that 鈥渢here is a total lack of engagement from the regulator or multi-disciplinary team either prior to application or post-application鈥�. 

Mullins said that 鈥渢he only communication we get is via an email, which is not really the way we should be working in collaboration鈥�. 

He acknowledged that the regulator wants to avoid becoming embedded in the design team, and that they need to be independent, but he said 鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of many other walks of life where there is this complete isolation鈥� and 鈥渘o ability to have a conversation鈥�.

Steve Beechey, group public sector director at Wates, said that though it is 鈥渆arly days鈥� for the BSR, it is 鈥渞eally important鈥� that it鈥檚 resourced properly. He said there have already been delays in gateway reviews, and said 鈥渨e鈥檝e got to make sure we鈥檙e attracting the right people who want to do that sort of work鈥�. 

Beechey added that artificial intelligence needs to form part of building safety checking processes. 

He added recruiting staff to the BSR 鈥渋s a similar issue as with town and country planners鈥�, and that the regulator needs to develop proper HR strategy to think about how it will attract more assessors. 

The Grenfell Inquiry final report recommended that there should be a new construction regulator, which would be a single independent body and report to the secretary of state. 

It also recommended that the government appoint an independent panel to consider whether building control functions should be performed by a national authority, rather than by councils.

Mullins said that even if a single regulatory body is created, skills and staff shortages will still be an issue, stating 鈥測ou need experience, you can鈥檛 just come straight out of college and be expected to be an expert鈥�. 

Mike Riley, architect and technical director at the 黑洞社区 Design Partnership, said 鈥渋t鈥檚 not just about meeting minimum compliance that the regulation says鈥�. 

He added that we should be asking, 鈥淗ow can we do better than that minimum?鈥�

Riley added that changes in the industry following the final Grenfell report can only 鈥渂e achieved through collaboration鈥� and having 鈥渘o blame cultures鈥�.