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London building control officers call for post-Grenfell renationalisation
Building control powers should be handed back to local authorities as part of the government’s response to the Grenfell tragedy, a group representing London building control officers has said.
London building control officers have called for renationalisation post-Grenfell #ukhousingLondon building control officers say current system is like having a restaurant employ its own food hygiene inspector #ukhousingJames King, president of the London District Surveyors Association (LDSA), made the call in a letter to Dame Judith Hackitt, who is leading a review into building regulations and fire safety after the Grenfell Tower fire.
Building control was part privatised by Margaret Thatcher in 1985 with the creation of the National House Building Council (NHBC) to compete with local authorities.
In 1997, John Major expanded this programme by introducing the ‘approved inspectors’ regime, which allowed other companies to join the market. Now, the NHBC handles building control for 80% of new homes.
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The LDSA is the London branch of the Local Authority Building Control (LABC), which represents the remaining building control officers controlled by local authorities.
Mr King wrote that there was “a fundamental problem in allowing people to choose their own regulator and it is very obvious”.
This refers to the fact that a developer can choose whether the local authority or an approved inspector of their choice examines their plans.
His letter continued: “It becomes extremely easy for the ‘regulated person’ to apply financial and commercial pressure to the person who is supposed to be upholding the standards. No other sphere of activity is regulated in this way.
“In a similar case I don’t think anyone would countenance a restaurant employing their own food hygiene inspector.”
Inside Housing has examined the system of building control signing off tower blocks in detail in ‘The Paper Trail: the Failure of Building Regulations’.
Mr King’s letter made eight proposals, all of which centre around the local authority, or engineers procured by the local authority, being responsible for building control.
Paul Everall, chief executive of the LABC, told Inside Housing this went further than the parent company’s position, which he described as “pragmatic”.
He added: “We would like to see it go back to local authorities. We recognise a lot of the other issues but we try and come up with pragmatic solutions to improve things within the political environment we exist in.
“But it has to be done more fairly than it is at the present time. We’ve made recommendations to the government as to how the playing field could be levelled between ourselves and approved inspectors, and we think that Dame Judith may well come up with some recommendations.”
A spokesperson for Dame Judith Hackitt said: “Dame Judith Hackitt’s review will assess the effectiveness of current building and fire safety regulations. We expect her final report will be published this spring.”
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