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Released for a period of parliamentary scrutiny in July 2020, the draft Building Safety Bill brings together the context and history of the Building Safety Programme and the various reports into a set of key legislative changes which aim to learn the lessons from Grenfell, and reform the building safety regulatory system.
In brief, the draft Bill sets up a new Building Safety Regulator within the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and sets out its power to define detail in secondary legislation, amends the Building Act 1984 (England) to create the new regulator and give it scope across the design and construction phases for high rise residential buildings of 18m or six storeys in scope, and defining a new planning and construction gateway process.
It also defines new regulation before buildings are occupied by residents and for their future lifecycle, including new roles like the Accountable Person and Building Safety Managers for buildings in occupation. There are also a raft of additional requirements and related schedules, including competency requirements and related powers for the Architects’ Registration Board (ARB).
The Bill is supplemented by a huge amount of explanatory material, which is important to read in parallel with the Bill’s text, providing examples and further information on the definition and context of the new rules and legislation, all of which is well worth reading to develop a greater understanding of the reforms, and the wider requirements ahead for industry to collaborate and commit to making buildings safer.
Immediately following the Grenfell fire, UK Government commissioned the Building Safety Programme – a series of parallel activities and reviews to identify risks and reduce or remove them from UK construction.
Information is available on the ban on combustible materials on new high-rise homes, guidance for owners with buildings that affected by new legislation, a remediation fund to remove and replace dangerous materials, and various tests and investigations.
We round-up articles focussing on all aspects of the Art in Architecture event held at BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art in Gateshead in February 2016.
Led by Dame Judith Hackitt, the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety was commissioned by the Government to review and make recommendations about the future of building safety regulation.
Published in May 2018 and titled “Building A Safer Future,” the final report assessed the various issues and failures surrounding existing construction process and building safety regulation. The review recommended root-and-branch reform of the entire system, and greater scrutiny of duty holders. It also includes recommendations to maintain and track the ‘golden thread of information’ – a digital record of project information across a building’s full lifecycle.
The Hackitt Review was quickly followed by government consultation and reports on how the review’s various recommendations could be translated into new regulations and frameworks and have formed the foundation of the draft Building Safety Bill and Fire Safety Bill.
The Building Safety Programme continues today, influencing and enforcing routes of improving building safety.
One form of update from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the monthly data releases to summarise progress to date with remediation work on buildings in scope identified with ACM cladding.
We caught up with Craig Muldoon from Howard Russell Construction to find out about his experiences implementing a BIM approach on projects and how it makes a real difference in delivering better buildings.
How FaulknerBrowns is capitalising on the benefits of digital construction, using technology to develop base-level specifications and templates that save time and power better projects.
We caught up with the team at architectural practice JDDK to find out more about their experiences in developing a BIM approach and discover just how that works in practice on innovative projects.
Have you seen ourFind out more about the Periodic Table of BIM
Periodic Table of BIM?
