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Government working with authorities to implement Hackitt Review
The government has started working to implement one of the key recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations, a civil servant has revealed.
Speaking at Housing 2018 in Manchester, Melanie Dawes, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said the government was working on forming the ‘Joint Competent Authority’.
In her review of building regulations, Dame Judith recommended the formation of such an authority, which would be a collaboration between the Health and Safety Executive, the fire brigade and local authorities.
Her recommendation was not that these organisations be merged, but that a framework be provided for them to work together to assess building safety.
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Ms Dawes told the conference: “We’re working right now with the Health and Safety Executive, with local authorities and with the fire authorities to put in place some options for how that will be taken forward. Critical to this will be greater accountability, as we’ve struggled, many of us, to remediate and sort out these buildings, we have discovered, haven’t we, that accountability is not clear enough.
“We need a much stronger thread of accountability from design right through to construction through to the moment of occupation, to the freeholder, which is often the case, taking over ownership of the building, through into the period of repair and maintenance and engagement with tenants which is going to be such a critical part of keeping buildings safe once they have been built and occupied.”
According to Ms Dawes, the government will be setting out a detailed response to the Hackitt Review “in the coming months”.
She also said that the government plans to work closely with the industry on figuring out how to improve the standards of competency for people carrying out technical work, an area that was one of Dame Judith’s primary focuses.
More on the Hackitt Review
The Hackitt Review: key recommendations at-a-glance Inside Housing breaks down the key areas of the final report from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations
Brokenshire: government will consult on banning combustible cladding The housing secretary announces a consultation despite the Hackitt Report findings
Dame Judith Hackitt: the interview Dame Judith Hackitt spoke to Inside Housing shortly after releasing her much-anticipated review of building regulations
Final Hackitt report calls for new regulatory body but does not ban combustibles Dame Judith Hackitt has called for a regulatory body to be set up to oversee the safety of buildings, but has stopped short of a prescriptive approach or the banning of dangerous cladding.
Grenfell survivors ‘saddened and disappointed’ by Hackitt report Reaction to Hackitt’s findings decision to ignore calls for a ban on combustible cladding
