Government

A mechanical and electrical job at London’s historic Guildhall has suffered a nine-month planning delay under the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Because there are two grace-and-favour flats in the venue, it is classed as a higher-risk building (HRB), which means work on the grade I-listed landmark has been caught up…

Building safety minister Samantha Dixon has ruled out offering higher wages to attract more registered building control inspectors to the Building Safety Regulator, amid ongoing efforts to reduce Building Safety Regulator (BSR) delays. In a Westminster Hall debate yesterday (23 October) on the performance of the BSR, she said the…

New “emergency” measures to tackle the collapse of housebuilding in the capital have been announced, including reducing the requirements for affordable housing, new powers for London Mayor Sadiq Khan and £322m for a developer investment fund. The widely-expected intervention has come amid what Khan called a “perfect storm” affecting housebuilding…

Fire chiefs are warning the government that progress on building safety is “not where it should be” eight years on from the Grenfell Tower disaster. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has made a series of new recommendations to ministers after claiming that remediation efforts are being “hindered by deep-rooted…

A 22-strong coalition of industry bodies has written to prime minister Keir Starmer calling for the government’s proposed reforms to apprenticeships to be suspended as they will be a “disaster” for construction. In an open letter, the industry groups argued that the changes will weaken skills standards, damage employer confidence…

A new review will consider the future of the body responsible for overseeing road investment and rail safety under a crackdown on red tape. The government announced today (21 October) that it will assess regulators on whether their roles have become redundant. Business secretary Peter Kyle told the Regional Investment…

New vocational V level qualifications are set to be introduced as part of a government effort to tackle the skills crisis in sectors such as construction. Under the proposals, revealed in a 72-page skills white paper on Monday (21 October), V levels will replace technical qualifications at level 3, including…

Six contractors have been issued a total of £415,000 in penalties for employing illegal workers. The firms were named in the Home Office’s latest list of companies penalised for employing people with no right to work in the UK between 1 January and 31 March. One of the largest fines,…

Industry figures have welcomed government proposals to speed up judicial reviews when nationally important infrastructure projects are challenged. The Treasury announced it is to work with the judiciary to cut the time legal challenges take by six months. It argued the move would help kickstart economic growth and speed up…

A government source has downplayed a report that Whitehall is to take a bigger role in delivery of the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) project. The Guardian reported that National Highways had been stripped of responsibility for the road connection between Essex and Kent. The newspaper said it had seen internal…