Meet the team delivering Building Safety - Peter Atkinson

I am a Chartered Civil Engineer and Chartered Structural Engineer with nearly 40 years of experience, mainly in the residential housing sector. In addition to new build design, I undertake surveys and inspections of buildings that have suffered damage for a variety of reasons or are considered unsafe. 

I am especially interested in historic buildings and how these can be conserved or refurbished and retained or brought to new uses. Meeting current safety expectations without losing important historic features is a challenge. 

I joined RPS nearly 12 months ago and have seen the demand for our building safety services increase as the Building Safety Act comes into force.  

I have always enjoyed creating an interesting and safe built environment where the buildings are as efficient and attractive as possible whilst serving everyone’s needs without excessive cost or impact on the environment. 

I started with a degree in Civil Engineering and after gaining site experience, I joined a small Civil and Structural Engineering consultancy that expanded to take on experts in Building Services and Fire Engineering. As the business grew, we worked on bigger buildings and projects. 

Becoming a Chartered Structural Engineer was my next milestone and as I gained experience in other disciplines it made sense to become a Chartered Civil Engineer. Along the way, I have gained qualifications in Historic Buildings, Waste and Resource Management and Environmental Engineering. 

Typically, I work with residential building owners who will contact us when a risk or defect has been identified or when reassurance is sought that their buildings comply with current regulations. 

The interesting part of my role is developing a full understanding of a building from records, designs, and our inspections or investigations.  For older buildings, this may mean researching historic forms of construction and comparing these to our findings on-site.  Older buildings have often been designed to out-of-date codes or standards but this doesn’t mean they are unsafe. The challenge is then to identify whether there is a need for works to the building or whether risks can be appropriately mitigated by the management of the building in use. 

The whole building and premises management industry is going through a culture change from 'compliance culture' to a risk-managed safety culture. As a result,  we are all asking for levels of understanding and scrutiny that have not previously seemed necessary. This can be challenging to achieve like any big change.

Alongside this, trying to accurately anticipate the Government’s expectation level will be a large factor as well.

One of the biggest challenges is effectively communicating our findings and conclusions to a client without confusing or unduly alarming them when further assessments are needed. 

We are always pragmatic, and if a building doesn’t meet current requirements, we’re on hand to discuss our findings and any recommendations.      

Meeting new clients and addressing their needs is always interesting but often the buildings themselves are the source of most satisfaction as we get to understand them and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Providing solutions that can ensure their continued, safe use is especially satisfying.      

It is an advantage to have a range of experienced building professions available in one company where knowledge and experience can be shared, and expertise can be tapped into if required. Findings and recommendations can be reviewed from different perspectives and if need be, challenged which leads to better outcomes for our clients.

It will be interesting to see how the BSR tackles the volume of buildings and how the industry adapts to satisfy their requirements.  The industry will be looking for consistency and clarity from the BSR and a pragmatic approach will be needed. But sufficient scrutiny will have to be brought to bear to restore public confidence without bringing the industry to a halt.  Presumably over time, the whole regime will adapt to the process but we can’t afford for it to fail.   

There is a skills and experience shortfall in the industry, and this is not going to improve anytime soon.  There is a lot of work to be done to restore public faith in the industry and probably not enough qualified professionals to deliver in as timely a manner as we would like.  Companies, like RPS, need to train the next generation to deliver safer buildings. 

There is also a need for experienced professionals to feedback into the system and share their experiences and suggestions to lead to a smoother application of the regulations. 

Building safety must be fundamental to every stage of building design and use and not seen as a hurdle, extra cost or impediment to development.  Instead of being a headline item it needs to simply become part of the everyday and embedded in everything we do.  And we need to give the public confidence that the industry has got its act together – we will only achieve this with consistency, diligence, and effort and a real sense of purpose will be needed to make this happen.        

RPS is well-positioned to help deliver the change that is needed to ensure building safety with its experience and resources.  As I head towards retirement, I’d like to have helped make a positive change but also to have helped train up the next generations to carry on improving our buildings and to make them as safe and usable as people expect and deserve.