by Clair Mooney | 21 May, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Health and Safety, Technical
The government has taken the next step to ensure materials used to build the nation’s homes are safe and tested properly, by announcing the appointment of two experts to lead an independent review of the system for testing construction products.
Paul Morrell OBE will be the chair of the independent panel, along with legal expert Anneliese Day QC. The review will examine how to strengthen the current system for testing construction products to provide confidence that these materials are safe and perform as marketed. The panel will engage with a wide range of stakeholders with a report published later this year with recommendations.
More information is available at www.gov.uk/government/news/independent-experts-to-review-safety-of-construction-materials
by Clair Mooney | 13 May, 2021 | Building Safety Act
The CROSS scheme (Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures) has extended its remit to include reporting on fire safety, in line with the Hackitt Review Recommendation 1.4 CROSS provides a secure system for confidentially sharing information and publishes free resources to help make structures safer.
by Oscar Venus | 16 Apr, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Market data, Transformation
FIS has written to the Welsh Government to formally support the CPA response to the Safer Buildings in Wales consultation and highlighted the confusion caused by Regulation 7 and challenges in building classification. On the whole the consultation sets out an achievable path for Welsh Regulations to embrace the fundamental elements of the Building Safety Bill that is expected to be passed into law before the summer recess.
The consultation focussed on 7 key areas.
- Setting out the scope of the Building Safety Regime
- The Building Safety Regime (Design and Construction Phase)
- The Building Safety Regime (Occupation phase)
- Residents: Roles and Responsibilities
- Raising Concerns
- Regulating the Building Safety Regime
- General Requirements in Relation to Fire Safety Equipment
FIS is particularly encouraged by the recognition of the importance of compartmentation and the emphasis outlined and the importance of managing interfaces. We were also able to highlight recent collaborative work in the production of the Fire Stopping of Service Penetrations Guide that can be referenced in future official guidance to support the avoidance of design and construction issues in this space and support one of the aims identified in the consultation in terms of “verifying that all works that breach compartmentation (eg holes drilled through walls) use appropriate and adequate fire-stopping”.
The full response from the CPA can be downloaded here
by Oscar Venus | 15 Apr, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Insurance, Main News Feed
If loading out a site and in wake of shortages and potentially taking larger orders of product than would ordinarily be the case, remember to check insurance implications and to survey the area carefully to ensure that any loading limitations on the floor/storage area are adhered to and have factored in risk to protect from environmental (cleanliness, humidity or temperature issues), stacking (adherence to storage instructions) or construction related damage. Also pay particular attention to safety factors that may arise if product is not stacked in accordance with manufacturers instructions and H&S best practice (e.g. leaning/stacking of boards). FIS Site Guides are free to download for members and include some helpful reminders on storage issues.
by Iain McIlwee | 17 Feb, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Insurance
Companies from across the industry are being asked to take part in the biggest ever review of construction’s growing professional indemnity insurance crisis.
In recent years firms from across the industry have reported sharp increases in premiums for PI insurance, while also seeing stricter curbs on the levels of cover. Some firms have reported four-fold increases in policy costs, while others have said that they can no longer secure cover.
This has been driven by multiple factors including a response to higher historic claims from the sector, as well as a cyclical hardening of the insurance market.
The Construction Leadership Council is planning steps to relieve the crisis. This includes developing a robust evidence base, identifying in detail the areas where the
industry is facing the most significant difficulties. The CLC is asking for companies from across the industry to take part in an on-line survey
It asks companies to provide confidential feedback on the costs and policy exclusions that they have experienced when renewing their cover. The poll is entirely confidential, but firms are asked to indicate
their type of business to help target any future support on those areas of greatest need.
Construction Leadership Council Professional Indemnity Insurance Group lead Samantha Peat said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has dominated headlines for the last year, but there is a second crisis that has been quietly growing for businesses across our industry.
“We are speaking to the UK Government and insurers to find ways to help businesses that could otherwise face an uncertain future due to the nature of their PI renewals. We want businesses from across the industry to give us their views – whether you are affected or not – to help us shape the way we prepare a response from the whole sector.
CLC chair Andy Mitchell said: “We have seen in the last year that our industry can deliver real positive change when we work together to tackle shared challenges. Given the feedback from across construction about the difficulties faced by companies, I want to strongly encourage companies to take part in this survey, letting us know about their experiences”
FIS CEO, Iain McIlwee added, “It is good to see CLC drilling down into this issue, we have growing concerns that the market for PI cover is breaking. Companies are being charged more and more for cover that covers less and less and this is now a regular part of our discussions with members. With the number of underwriters willing to look at construction having reduced in recent years, it is only getting worse. Integrated Project Insurance is still scarce, but potentially offers a more effective way of managing our insurable risks – it aligns the insurance to the risk management process, it has added benefits of encouraging earlier engagement and a more collaborative approach to construction. Whatever the solution, something needs to be done as we are heading into an insurance crisis.”
The survey will be live until 12 March 2021. Industry-level details of the results will be published by Construction Leadership Council and will be used to inform ongoing work to support the sector.
FIS is encouraging all members of our community to complete the on-line survey here
by Iain McIlwee | 15 Feb, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Insurance
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) welcomes the announcement made recently by the Housing Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP on expansion of the Building Safety Fund. This included full funding for the removal of unsafe cladding for leaseholders in all residential buildings 18 metres and over (6 storeys) in England; and a finance scheme to provide reassurance for leaseholders in buildings between 11 and 18 metres (4 to 6 storeys).
The CLC recently submitted an industry wide response ahead the Chancellor’s Budget Statement on 3 March 2021. This focussed on a small number of key interventions including an increase in the funding for the Building Safety Fund to cover the remediation of all eligible buildings and other matters.
Government and industry must continue to work together to ensure the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire does not happen again.
The majority of this work is being led by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) through their Building Safety Programme and is structured around four key areas: identification of unsafe buildings, making those buildings safe, identifying system problems, and fixing the system.
The construction industry must play its part too and there is already significant work underway.
The Construction Leadership Council Building Safety workstream aims to support CLC and industry engagement with the Grenfell Inquiry, Building Safety Programme, new regulatory bodies and wider work for the built environment. Key objectives include identifying the intersections between the core work of the CLC and Building Safety Programme, where appropriate enhancement and contribution to key building safety regime objectives and driving industry awareness and understanding – key is leadership and culture change both in the immediate (new and existing High Risk Residential Buildings buildings) and longer term for the entire industry.
Over the past two years the Competence Steering Group (CSG) has assembled a coalition of organisations from across the built environment and fire industries together with organisations representing building owners and managers. Their aim was to come up with a blueprint to improve competence for those working on higher-risk buildings, and drive a culture change right across the industry.
The group has produced 2 reports – Raising the Bar published in August 2019 and Setting the Bar published in October 2020. The work was initiated by the recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s review Building a Safer Future. Since the publication of the ‘Setting the Bar’, the CSG and its 13 Working Groups have consulted widely and taken on board feedback as they have continued to develop sector frameworks. These frameworks will provide the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours needed to carry out specific roles, and deliver a more rigorous approach to the essential training and assessment that is required.
In addition, MHCLG has commissioned the National Standards Body, BSI, to develop the National Standards for the overarching competence framework and accompanying Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) standards for the three regulated roles of Principal Designer, Principal Contractor and Building Safety Manager.
Improved product safety is also a key part of building safety reforms. Work has been ongoing over the past few years to ensure that the products that go into buildings are safe and therefore buildings are safe. This work has been aligned with the recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 report Building a Safer Future and the draft building safety bill published by MHCLG in July 2020. This includes the industry development of a code for construction product information, led by the Construction Products Association’s Marketing Integrity Group. The aim of the code is to have a robust and consistent approach to how construction product information is communicated. The draft code proposes the principles of clear, accurate, up to date, accessible and unambiguous information through 11 clauses.
Throughout 2021, the Building Safety workstream will look to share and update the industry via the CLC website on key work and announcements. Most recent activity includes:
- The Government has announced a new national regulator for construction products operating within the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). An independent review has also commissioned to examine weaknesses in previous testing regimes for construction products, and to recommend how abuse of the testing system can be prevented.
- Launch of the industry consultation on a proposed new code for construction product information.
- Recent article by Graham Watts, Chief Executive of the Construction Industry Council, a Member of the MHCLG Industry Response Group and Chair of its Competence Steering Group.
All in the industry must engage and play their part to improve.
Iain McIlwee FIS CEO added “It is clear that the industry is needs to pull out all of the stops to ensure that profound changes to culture and process happen, but for me the fund still falls short of attacking the problem head on. Cladding is but one issue, it is not addressing the wider aspects that were uncovered in Grenfell and previous disasters. It also concerns me that there is now talk of a levy on development, which could potentially impact funding for future works. For me we are still looking at systemic failure – the Building Safety Fund needs to be more ambitious and better targeted. The Pension Protection Fund offers a good parallel and has been effective in targeting and overcoming A more thinly spread levy, linked to e.g. Insurance Premium Tax that does not leave lease-holders with debilitating loans and further angst”.
FIS Three Steps to Rebuilding Construction
