Building safety

Detectives investigating the Didcot Power Station collapse in which four men died will make a decision on whether to bring charges in the case next year, Thames Valley Police has said. Coleman & Company employees Ken Cresswell, 57, Chris Huxtable, 34, John Shaw, 61, and Mick Collings, 53, died when…

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey is suing Vinci Construction for more than £30m over alleged cladding and steelwork defects carried out by the contractor’s subsidiary Taylor Woodrow at a development in Cardiff. The case concerns the development of seven residential towers at Victoria Wharf in Cardiff Bay. Taylor Wimpey appointed Taylor Woodrow…

The government is considering introducing mandatory registration and licensing for additional roles across the construction sector as part of its overhaul of professional oversight in the built environment. Wednesday’s (17 December) prospectus for the new single construction regulator announced that ministers are proposing to go further than the recommendations of…

A civil claim brought by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) against a group of companies involved in the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower will not be heard until October 2028, the High Court has said. Mrs Justice Jefford and Senior Master Cook ruled last week (9 December)…

Landmark legislation around building safety will be reviewed in 2027 - five years after it was introduced, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced yesterday. The landmark Building Safety Act (BSA) was introduced in 2022 in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 when 72 people…

A new long-term strategy for the construction professions has been revealed at the same  time as the government published a new prospectus for the single construction regulator. The government promised to reveal the strategy along with reforms to building regulations and construction products to boost building safety, quality and productivity.…

The House of Lords has delivered its verdict on the early performance of the Building Safety Regulator, and it has not pulled its punches. In a report titled The Building Safety Regulator: Building a better regulator, peers describe a system beset by “unacceptable” delays, with applications routinely taking far longer…

Stephen Workman is UK head of residential building design at AtkinsRéalis  Three years into the implementation of the Building Safety Act (BSA), the mechanisms designed to ensure safer buildings have been seen to undermine the government’s ambition to get Britain building. The BSA was introduced with the right intentions, but…

Delays in processing applications are “unacceptable” and “urgent” improvements are needed, according to a House of Lords inquiry into the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). In its report published today (11 December), the Lords’ Industry and Regulators Committee has called on the government to fund more inspectors, improve efficiency by allocating…

Paul Morrell asks if licensing contractors will make buildings safer or just add complexity to duties already covered by the Building Safety Act