Health and Safety

Bill Hill is chief executive officer of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity The statistics about wellbeing in construction do not make for good reading. About 20 per cent of all recorded work-related illness is down to stress, anxiety or depression. The true number is probably higher, because not everything is…

The Work at Height Regulations save lives and are hugely popular in the construction sector. But will moves to ‘sunset’ all EU laws dilute – or even destroy – them? Behind the innocuous-sounding ‘Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill’, lies the prospect of an assault by the government on…

As the investigation into the deaths of four men at a decommissioned power station enters its eighth year, Ian Weinfass speaks to some of those still affected by the tragedy and asks why the industry has received no guidance since Sadie Cresswell has been waiting for seven years to find…

Richard Broome is managing director of online resource LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) As the country started to return to some form of normality post-COVID, and the government put significant resources behind large-scale infrastructure in a bid to kick-start the UK’s economy, we have experienced a ‘digging boom’. Indeed, according to government figures,…

Robert Cridford is technical manager at materials supplier Siniat In the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy and the subsequent identification of failings within industry regulations, codes, practices and approval processes, there’s been a major tightening-up of fire-safety legislation over the past few years – and rightly so. The…

Ibrahim Imam is co-CEO of construction-sector software provider PlanRadar Fire-safety regulation is a hot topic for everyone in construction, particularly the residential sector, where the Fire Safety Act (FSA) and Building Safety Act (BSA) are rightly tightening up protocol. Being refined on a regular basis, the FSA continues to be…

Tim Marlow is founding partner of Chronos Consult Last week, the UK saw its hottest temperature ever, with an official high of 40.3o. The Meteorological Office says this is likely to happen again within weeks. As always, the industry has shown its resilience, with most sites remaining open. But, even…

Andrew Mather is director of Ramboll Climate science has been saying it for a while, but the UK is now starting to experience more of the extreme weather that will, sadly, only become more prevalent. As we continue to break new record temperatures, we need to face up to the…

Alexander Edwards is a partner at Rosling King LLP We all saw the Grenfell Tower tragedy unfold before our eyes in June 2017. In the aftermath, its disastrous consequences, and cladding in high-rise buildings in particular, triggered fierce debate across the country. Almost five years later, the Building Safety Act…

Dave Cahill (right) is head of UK construction and Adam Power is construction PI lead at Miller Insurance The construction market has seen a sustained period of difficulty, with many companies facing or having faced insolvency. Some argue that much of the supply chain has never fully recovered from the…