NEWS Hackitt building regulations report released
THE REVIEW, BBC News reported, called for a ‘radical rethink’ of the fire safety system, and said that a ‘genuine’ culture change was required in the building sector, recommending a new regulator be set up to ‘oversee the construction and management of buildings’. This would be the Joint Competent Authority, comprising building standards, fire and rescue authorities and the Health and Safety Executive. It would begin with 2,000 to
3,000 ‘high risk’ residential buildings of 10 storeys or more in height, with the report also having ‘strongly criticised’ the existing system, Dame Judith outlining that this has resulted in a ‘prime motivation […] to do things as quickly and cheaply as possible’, in a ‘race to the bottom’, while regulations are ‘ambiguous and unclear’, as well as guidance created to meet them. Regulations ‘are not always
read by those who need to’ read them, and are ‘misunderstood and misinterpreted’. The system for testing and certifying was also ‘disjointed, confusing, unhelpful and lacking any sort of transparency’, and The Guardian outlined her point that ‘indifference and ignorance’ were key to poor building standards. Problems emerging after Grenfell
were ‘most definitely not just a question of the specification of cladding systems, but of an industry that has not reflected and learned for itself, nor looked to other sectors’, the report citing the Ledbury Estate's issues, the failure of a Grenfell fire door and the Liverpool Arena car park fire. The report’s goal was to ‘strengthen regulatory oversight during the design and construction process’, but she ‘stopped short’ of banning desktop studies, and wanted these – as opposed to fire tests – to be carried out only by qualified people, which would ‘effectively stop unregulated fire engineers’ paid by builders or owners from declaring systems safe. A new regulations system ‘should
place faith’ in the construction industry ‘to take responsibility for the delivery of safe buildings rather than looking to others to tell them what is or is not acceptable’, and ‘it will be
6 Building a Safer Future
Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report
important now for industry to show leadership in driving this forward’. Concerns raised in the building process are ignored as ‘the primary motivation is to do things as quickly and cheaply as possible rather than to deliver quality homes’. Some builders manipulate the ambiguity of the regulations to ‘game the system’, while others were unaware of who was in charge, enforcement is ‘patchy’ and penalties are ‘so small as to be ineffective’. The report recommends tougher penalties and prosecutions brought up to six years after an incident. Dame Judith concluded: ‘We do
May 2018 Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng
not want to have to wait for a tragedy like Grenfell before we apply the full criminal sanctions of the law. We have to get to a position where people putting lives at risk by what they’re doing gets picked up at the time and there’s sanctions applied there and then, not in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy like Grenfell. If this had been in place prior to Grenfell, I do not believe the cladding that was put on Grenfell would have got through the system in the first place.’ On combustible materials,
Dame Judith stated: ‘This is most definitely not a question of the specification of cladding systems. Simply adding more prescription, or making amendments to the current system, such as restricting or prohibiting certain practices, will not address the root causes.’ Responding to questions on this, she said she would support
JUNE 2018
www.frmjournal.com
a government ban on combustible materials ‘as long as it was alongside wider reforms’, and The Guardian later reported that the government opened a consultation on a ban. Housing Secretary James
Brokenshire stated: ‘The government will consult on banning the use of combustible materials in cladding on high-rise buildings’, though it was unclear, The Guardian stated, ‘if he meant just external panels or also insulation, both of which were combustible at Grenfell’. Construction News reported later
on Dame Judith’s ‘scathing attack’ on the construction industry, in which she stated: ‘I’m shocked at lack of discipline in this sector, coming from an engineering background having worked where I had to deliver safe outcomes in everything I did, I am shocked and appalled at an industry that doesn’t recognise its moral responsibility to deliver safe buildings. ‘Design-and-build contracts usually mean [firms] come up with a sketchy design and then extrapolate as you go along without recording things; these practices have got to stop. There are safe buildings out there, a lot of safe buildings. ‘My review is aimed at catching those who through indifference or ignorance chose to flout the rules and game the system, and ensure there are proper penalties and sanctions in place to stop them doing that.’ She added: ‘[It’s] up to the industry
Cm 9607
to get [its] act together and decide how it can ensure it designs and builds
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
