The Government has published its response to the Building a Safer Future consultation, setting out how it intends to establish the new Building Safety Regulator.

The new regime will initially apply to all multi‐occupied buildings of 18 metres or more in height but may be expanded based on the outcome of the consultation on the review of the ban on combustible materials in external walls. The Government will also establish a national Construction Products Regulator responsible for market oversight, enforcement action, and providing technical advice to the industry to aid compliance with the new regime.

FIS has teamed up with Barbour ABI to bring members deeper analysis and intelligence on the construction market. This next level of analysis will help members to forecast trends and assist in your business planning.

In this issue…

• Contract awards robust for March but delays now hit
• Medical and Health sector not impacted by delays
• London is leading region for contract awards

Government is looking at what current legislation is available to them to ensure that products are correctly installed and appropriately used.

This will undoubtedly call in current relationships between suppliers and installers and reflects Dame Judith Hackitt’s call for a Golden thread of information, more collaboration and greater emphasis on Competency.

This technical note taken from a recent longer read in SpecFinish provides an example where an installer was prosecuted.

Magnesium Oxide building boards (MgO)

NHBC has recently updated its website regarding the use of MgO boards in essence they will not accept MgO building boards on buildings where the foundations are begun on or after 30 April 2020 under its insurance warranty.

Currently Premier guarantee have not made such conditions, their advice can be found here.

Our advice is that you should check with the Principle designer before suggesting or using MgO boards on projects.

The udpated guidance is available to members here.

The Cross-industry Construction Apprenticeship Task Force (CCAFT) is looking for employers and representatives from industry as well as college and training provider staff to review elements of the draft technical qualifications (we will give you key points to consider) and then answer some questions (probably a survey) relating to key themes CCAFT require feedback on.  Support is needed to scope one or more of the following areas:

Construction On-site

• Core content (H&S, Science, Design, Communication, Collaboration, Sustainability, the Built Environment, Technologies and Waste Management)
• Bricklaying
• Carpentry & Joinery
• Painting and Decorating
• Plastering

This is an opportunity for you and/or your staff to be involved to really make a difference to the qualifications that will be delivered in 2021 as an entry route to industry. Please feel free to forward to colleagues or employer associates who may be willing to get involved.

If you are interested in supporting us please contact qualdevelopment@cityandguilds.com In your email can you please highlight the pathway above you can help with, also whether you are an employer, an industry representative or college, training provider staff to ensure we can try our best to obtain a broad range of individuals who can support development.

Yesterday, the Chief Executive of HMRC, Jim Harra, appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and announced that the online system for making claims under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been developed and will be launched on 20 April.

The system has been tested to handle up to 450,000 claims per hour and live testing began yesterday with a small number of invited businesses. Employers can expect to receive their furlough grant within 4 to 6 days of submitting a claim and the first payments are due to come through by the end of April.

Mr Harra said he was confident that the portal would not crash but accepts that their call centre may struggle to cope with call volumes if many employers call for assistance on using the system. HMRC has put plans in place to ensure the process works as smoothly and quickly as possible, with 2,000 staff already dedicated to their helplines and another 3,500 redeployed to help process the huge number of anticipated claims.

He also outlined the measures which have been taken to counter potential fraud and abuse of the scheme. In particular:

• The employee must have been on payroll by 28 February
• The employer needs to have already been authenticated by HMRC
• There will be a 4 to 6 day processing period to make background checks
• There will also be checks after grants have been made to verify claims
• There will be a whistleblower’s hotline where fraud or abuse of the scheme can be reported (for example, if an employee has been asked to work when on furlough).

Thanks to FIS member Citation for providing this udpate.