INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER - BUILDING SAFETY BILL 43
new rules and regulations, and many in the industry have criticised the way they have been implemented. Aiming to find out – from the industry itself – the sector’s views on the issue, Housebuilder & Developer conducted a survey of its audience – just weeks before the Bill received assent. Though the majority were shown to agree with the need for building safety reform, our research revealed that when this survey was taken, a shocking 31% of respondents had not even heard of the Bill, and of those who had, only around half said
they had a good understanding of what it entails – with 40% of respondents reporting a lack of information as one of the largest barriers to compliance.
As the full white paper report (available free at www.
hbdonline.co.uk) shows, housebuilders’ and developers’ willingness to change appears to be strong. The awareness of the need for change is clear among the vast majority, but the Government has its work cut out in getting them up to speed – and the urgency is acute.
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE BILL
F
ires in housing schemes have of course been a continual problem and concern since before records began. In England, however, it was not until the 19th century that the origins of standard fire tests began to appear, and it wasn’t until 1965 that the first Building Regulations for England and Wales started to take shape.
Though there have been innumerable steps forward within building safety since this point, deadly fires have continued to occur in recent decades.
According to Home Office Statistics, there were 28,504 dwelling fires attended in England alone in 2019/20, with 285 fire-related deaths across the UK in the same year. Often, on the smaller scale, these fires involve predictable, preventable causes, from faulty appliances, to smoker’s materials and poorly maintained or installed electrical systems. On the larger scale incidents, the causes of serious fires can often be attributed to poor building design – which, as those on the small scale, are often predictable, and preventable.
CLADDING FIRES
When full details of the horror that had occurred in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in North Kensington – taking the lives of 72 residents and injuring over 70 more – reached the industry, it was called a “tragedy foretold.”
Arguably the headline factor blamed for the Grenfell disaster, the cladding had been shown to drastically increase the pace of the fire, and, as many decried, this was nothing new. One of the earliest fires that involved cladding materials was the 1973 Summerland disaster on the Isle of Man, which caused 50 deaths. Investigations around the fire found that part of the reason it spread so quickly was due to the acrylic sheeting on the exterior of the building.
Then, in the face of this, in 1991 a fire spread up the entire height of the 11-storey Knowsley Heights building on Merseyside, again attributed to its exterior cladding – though thankfully nobody was injured in this instance. Regrettably, history carried on repeating itself, and in 2009, the Lakanal House fire occurred in Southwark, killing six, with its cladding once again contributing to the speed of the fire spread on the 14-storey block.
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Was the Grenfell disaster a demonstration that the construction industry has failed to self-regulate?
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
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