It is 鈥榗lear鈥� improvements have to be made, housing committee chair says
MPs have urged the government to review how it can best support the 精东影视 Safety Regulator to reduce delays in signing off the safety of buildings.
After a short inquiry into Grenfell and 精东影视 Safety, the House of Commons鈥� housing, communities and local government committee wrote to the housing secretary and building safety minister with a slew of recommendations.
Committee chair Florence Eshalomi said that delays in building safety approvals 鈥渕ust be addressed as a priority鈥� and added it was 鈥渃lear that improvements need to be made both to the operating efficacy of the Regulator, as well as the quality of building control applications which are submitted for its review鈥�.
For many developers, the time taken for schemes to receive gateway 2 approval from the regulator is currently the biggest issue with some reporting waits of up to 11 months.
>> See also: Government exploring 鈥榓ll possible options鈥� to cut gateway 2 building safety delays, says minister
During the inquiry, the boss of the regulator, Philip White, stressed that currently, the BSR only has the ability to tackle safety issues on a 鈥渂uilding by building鈥� basis, rather than targeting specific organisations who own multiple properties.
He said the BSR would benefit from being able to address issues with employers, rather than building by building.
He told the committee: 鈥淚 would like to have the power to serve a notice to say: 鈥榃e found a problem here because the managers don鈥檛 have any training in relation to x or y. Here is an improvement notice for the organisation to get its workforce trained up in that way.鈥� That is a lever to address the underlying problem.鈥�
In its recommendations to housing secretry Angela Rayner and building safety minister Alex Norris, the committee said: 鈥淭he government must review how it can best support the 精东影视 Safety Regulator to make improvements in its day-to-day operations.
鈥淭his could include making changes to the Regulator鈥檚 remit to allow it to carry out its work on an organisation-by-organisation basis, rather than on the current system of going building-by-building.鈥�
The committee also recommended that the government should set up its promised independent panel on the future of building control as soon as possible and that it be given statutory footing.
Eshalomi also urged the government to use the upcoming Hillsborough Bill to establish an independent oversight mechanism to ensure the recommendations of public inquiries, including the one into the Grenfell Tower tragedy are implemented properly.
The fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 resulted in the deaths of 72 people, triggering a multi-year inquiry into the failures of government and industry that had resulted in the catastrophe.
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