Steve Boulter, RLB Associate leading the London health and safety/principal designer/CDM team was one of four experts to chat to Project Safety Journal about the lessons learnt seven years after Grenfell. Describing how the Building Safety Act has changed the industry beyond recognition, he acknowledged that while significant progress had been made more work is needed to ensure health and safety is paramount across all our estates.
What’s changed post-Grenfell? Where are the gaps?
Since Grenfell our industry has been under intense scrutiny, and building safety has become a top focus in designing and constructing our estates.
The sheer amount of legislation (new and amended) that we’re required to consult does mean you have to be really determined to be able to find and interpret it all! I’m sure the new scrutiny of the gateway process will lead to better and safer buildings and will certainly lead to a more comprehensive design being produced before the first spade hits the ground, which can only be a positive thing.
There is still a lot of uncertainty within the industry, which often is a result of the limited time to fully digest the implications of the secondary legislation. There is much confusion across a number of areas from what should be in a competent declaration to what are the practical deliverables, that should be expected from the new PD and PC roles.
It’s probably worth pointing out that a compliant design will always fall down if the building work is not carried out correctly. Also, in my opinion, there has been lots of focus on the building regulations PD in terms of developing scopes of services but not so much on the building regulations PC.
I’m positive the mist will start to clear in time as all parties start to understand the new requirements of the BSA and in particular the amended building regulations requirements and new duty holders better. However, additional, and more accessible, guidance would be useful and templates of the prescribed documents.
Reactions to Grenfell Phase 2? Other changes you would like to see?
The report for me highlighted that as an industry we need to change the mindset and culture, so that within every meeting the resident’s safety is at the forefront. There is still a long way to go on this.
It also recommends major reforms in fire safety regulations, accountability for building owners and managers, improvements in building design and materials, clearer evacuation strategies and stronger oversight of emergency services to prevent a repeat of the disaster.
I would like to see the swift progress of the fire safety management in HRBs.
The BSA has addressed many of the regulatory deficiencies which led to the tragedy, however many are still outstanding. For me, some of the key ones are the mandatory enhanced competency requirements for fire risk assessors, more focus on vulnerable residents and better clarity on elements of Approved Document B.
The recommendations from the report are vast but I would like to see the swift progress of the fire safety management in HRBs such as all high-rise residential building owners with any known deficiencies to evaluate their ‘stay put strategy’ fire strategies, fire engineers to become a protected and regulated profession and mandatory accreditation to certify the competence of fire risk assessors.
The report highlights competence, which has been addressed by the changes within the building regulations, but the industry must step up to meet these new standards. Some recommendations I would apply caution to include changing the definition of an HRB and the licensing scheme for PCs to work on HRBs, as this could make things even more difficult.
This is an abridged version of the article that first appeared in Project Safety Journal.
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