Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: interim report

Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: interim report was commissioned by government following the Grenfell Tower fire to make recommendations on the future regulatory system.

The Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety aims to make recommendations that will ensure there is a sufficiently robust regulatory system for the future and provide further assurance to residents that the buildings they live in are safe and will remain so.

This interim report sets out the findings to date and the direction of travel for the final report.

Interim report key findings

The work of the review to date has found that the current regulatory system for ensuring fire safety in high-rise and complex buildings is not fit for purpose. This applies throughout the life cycle of a building, both during construction and occupation, and is a problem connected both to the culture of the construction industry and the effectiveness of the regulators.

The key reasons for this are:

• Current regulations and guidance are too complex and unclear.
• Clarity of roles and responsibilities is poor.
• Despite many who demonstrate good practice, the means of assessing and ensuring the competency of key people throughout the system is inadequate.
• Compliance, enforcement and sanctions processes are too weak.
• The route for residents to escalate concerns is unclear and inadequate.
• The system of product testing, marketing and quality assurance is not clear.

The Independent Review will now undertake its second phase of work and publish a final report in spring 2018. This will include targeted work in partnership with the sector and other stakeholders. This interim report sets the direction for change that will underpin that report and covers six broad areas.

• Regulation and guidance
• Roles and responsibilities
• Competence
• Process, compliance and enforcement
• Residents’ voice and raising concerns
• Quality assurance and products

In summary

There is a call to action for an entire industry and those parts of government that oversee it. It will require a universal shift in culture. This change needs to start now.

The ‘Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Interim Report’ can be found here.

Pennington Choices is a specialist compliance consultancy and undertakes fire risk assessments (FRAs) and compliance audits for housing and property providers.  For further information about our procurement consultancy, please contact Jenny Neville or our our head office at info@pennington.org.uk or 01928 568 842