Building safety

Barratt Redrow has taken a £248m hit from legacy liabilities related to fire safety and reinforced concrete defects, following its £2.5bn acquisition of rival housebuilder Redrow. The costs, recognised as adjusting items, include £98m of new liabilities uncovered in the second half of the year to 30 June, according to…

Laing O’Rourke is pursuing architect BDP for £1.8m after carrying out cladding remediation on a residential building in Bury, Lancashire.  The contractor completed The Rock, a mixed-use shopping centre scheme, in July 2010 after signing a design and build contract two years earlier. BDP was the architect for the project…

The number of undecided building control applications sitting with the Building Safety Regulator reached over a thousand at the end of March, figures reveal. The figure is included in the set of performance figures published by the BSR, covering January to March with updates set to be made every quarter.…

The Construction Leadership Council is set to issue guidance, drawn up with Building Safety Regulator input, on how building firms can navigate the gateway building control process for higher-risk buildings (HRBs), Construction News understands. Mark Reynolds, co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), yesterday (8 July) revealed during a Parliamentary…

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has formally appointed Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures UK (CROSS-UK) as the official Voluntary Occurrence Reporting System (VORS) operator for structural and fire safety until at least 2028. This appointment follows a competitive tender process and builds on CROSS-UK’s interim role as VORS operator…

By Rory Butler A second council has suspended building control applications due to a serious shortage of qualified staff, it has emerged. City of York Council’s building control department has placed a warning on its website that building inspections are currently unavailable, citing a significant backlog of work and serious…

The Scottish Government is calling on industry to help shape the next stage of its nationwide cladding remediation programme at two supplier engagement events this month. Scheduled for 24 July at Victoria Quay in Edinburgh, the events will support upcoming procurement related to the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024.…

The Building Safety Regulator could be tasked with dealing with multiple buildings with similar characteristics at the same time to tackle approval delays, according to a leading fire brigade chief. An official at the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said it was discussing the possibility of “grouping” some higher-risk building applications…

Chelmsford City Council has suspended building inspections and put a freeze on new building control applications because of a lack of qualified staff. In an announcement on its website, the Essex council said it had paused all building inspections “over the coming weeks”. In a statement, the council told Construction…

A leading building control figures has branded the appointment of two fire brigade chiefs to run the construction safety watchdog as “bizarre” and “incredibly concerning”. Geoff Wilkinson, managing director of compliance consultancy Wilkinson and a chartered surveyor, said the move suggested the government was taking a very narrow view of…