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With weeks to go until high-risk, residential buildings start being called in for inspection by the Building Safety Regulator, speculation about what's to come is starting to mount across the industry.
It's been a busy time for our building safety professionals who have been working closely with clients to get their buildings ready for review. However, with so much uncertainty we wanted to see what our experts were thinking about the future of building safety and how they are helping clients prepare for the Building Safety Act.
In the first of our Meet the Team series, we caught up with our newest Building Safety recruit to find out more about how he supports his clients in the pursuit of compliance.
Having managed Supported Housing units for over a decade, I moved into inspection of residential premises and Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
I mainly focused on premises safety, rather than resident support. I had previously gained a lot of experience working with clients from homeless backgrounds and risk assessment had always been part of my working life. The move into property inspection was a natural evolution for me.
Through industry contacts, including joint operations with the Fire and Rescue service, I started to work on larger and more complex buildings. This included working in occupied sheltered units during the first Covid 19 lockdown, addressing fire safety and water safety issues, as well as some resident welfare work.
Fire Safety has always been important to me, especially since having had a fire in a tenanted property as a landlord, which embedded the potential dangers in my thinking. Then the Grenfell Tower tragedy happened and profoundly reshaped attitudes across the industry regarding the responsibilities of housing providers and related professionals. Following Dame Judith Hackitt’s report and the drafting of the Building Safety Bill, I accepted the role of Building Safety Manager for a large Housing Association. This involved preparing their high-rise stock for upcoming legislation and assisting with many safety and compliance matters.
In addition to ongoing CPD and a good number of shorter courses, I studied alongside my day job at the Housing Association with the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). I took their Level 6 Certificate in Fire Safety for Construction, and the Level 6 Diploma in Building Safety Management. I was part of a large and varied cohort with many from fire and rescue, or construction industry backgrounds, all of whom broadened my learning.
I enjoy the challenge of analysis and problem-solving. Devising questions to ensure that everything we can think of has been covered, whilst helping clients find appropriate solutions that keep everyone safe, brings me satisfaction.
Previous projects have included overseeing safety-related rectification programmes including having to implement temporary ‘waking watch’ measures. Managing contractors and the resident liaison through re-cladding and other building safety works drew on all my varied experience at once, and then extended it further.
I think my previous solutions and risk management experience will help me assist and advise our clients well in increasing safety for their residents and assets as well as achieving compliance.
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.
In recent years, I have been developing risk-based programmes with short, medium, and longer-term goals. It’s been good to see some of the futureproofing pay off, as it shows the anticipation of certain criteria becoming law was correctly understood. One example of this has been a correct utilisation of ‘notional fire doors’ which allowed potential replacement costs of many doors to be reallocated, bringing other safety works forward.
New regulations and guidance are being published pretty much every month by the government. This is unchartered waters for even very experienced property management professionals. In the construction industry, we’re already seeing many changes underway, which will increase as the culture shifts towards greater accountability and transparency.
I think that once prosecutions and sanctions commence there will be a ‘second wave’ of high demand for experienced professionals and expert advice across the industry. The BSA relates to the higher risk, high-rise buildings and construction sectors, but the height threshold is likely to drop as the regulator gets underway (11m has been muted). Alongside that the Social Housing Act, and Awaab’s Law will push the requirements for social housing landlords with large portfolios and many are not fully prepared for that.
My passion is to see the best return for resources invested, and that means time as well as finances. Only when measures are targeted to deliver optimum outcomes using a risk-based approach can a high level of value be realised from those resources.
We have a vast breadth of resources from structural engineers, fire engineers to high-level specialists in disciplines such as water safety, and asbestos in house. We can readily draw on our years of experience and expertise to bring a range of options to the complex issues that today’s built environment presents. Our teams can be tailored to the bespoke needs of clients.
I think the increase in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the ‘Golden Thread’ approach for traceability in construction will revolutionise how we think about buildings and their safety.
Together with environmental modelling, this will require harnessing the potential of technology and research in combination to deliver safer, high quality, and more ‘predictable’ buildings. Costs of maintenance and upkeep should then follow to become more precise and assist owners, operators and building management in their quest.
It is still early days for me, but I always learn from those around me and from the challenges that interesting work provides. RPS has a scale and scope that exceeds my previous environments. It holds prospect of ‘making complex simple’ in building safety terms. Our breadth of clients and their various needs will undoubtedly stretch the range of complex issues we have to simplify, but I relish the learning and teamwork opportunities this presents.
Principal Consultant
