{"id":536030,"date":"2026-01-22T12:22:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=536030"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:22:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:22:37","slug":"the-times-are-a-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/the-times-are-a-changing-22-01-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The times are a-changing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The line \u201cAll this must change\u201d in American writer Henry Longfellow\u2019s poem K\u00e9ramos<\/em> is certainly apt for the future of regulation and oversight in construction. This year is a time of transition for the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). By the end of January 2027, it will have emerged from under the wing of the Health and Safety Executive to become an independent body. This is the first milestone towards the creation of this new single construction regulator (SCR), the prospectus for which was published shortly before Christmas.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the new SCR is to bring the construction industry\u2019s fragmented regulatory framework into one single powerhouse. Building safety, construction products and professional competence will all come under the same roof. A one-stop shop.<\/p>\n

It may sound like the government is intent on creating a colossus \u2013 a bureaucratic behemoth that could clog up the system with red tape, and in doing so become the antithesis of the central election pledge of Labour to make life easier for businesses. That is possible, but such concerns are generally being outweighed by industry optimists.<\/p>\n

The BSR itself was not without its teething problems, including a mismatch between the industry\u2019s capability to provide information and the BSR\u2019s capacity to process it. As such, we\u2019re now all familiar with the gateway delays that a House of Lords committee recently referred to as \u201cunacceptable\u201d. But the backlog is now largely cleared and the path for new applications is considerably smoother.<\/p>\n

This summer it will be nine years since the Grenfell Tower fire and it\u2019s now 17 months after the final report of the subsequent inquiry was published. And the pace of reform seems steady \u2013 not rapid, but not glacial. Indeed, the word that\u2019s most often seen in government press releases regarding the transition to the single regulator is \u201ccareful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some industry watchers say construction companies are only just getting used to the BSR and it\u2019s both unwise and unfair to bring in a new system too quickly. But others, like Dame Judith Hackett, have often felt change is not being embraced fast enough and reform needs to outpace legislation.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, there is a broad consensus that reform is needed and a single construction regulator is a good idea. But we\u2019ll have to wait at least a year to see if bigger is better. And while Henry Longfellow\u2019s line \u201call things must change\u201d may be applicable to the disparate regulatory framework that currently exists, the poem\u2019s following line may be equally apt: \u201cTo something new, to something strange\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The line \u201cAll this must change\u201d in American writer Henry Longfellow\u2019s poem K\u00e9ramos is certainly apt for the future of regulation and oversight in construction. This year is a time of transition for the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). By the end of January 2027, it will have emerged from under the wing of the Health …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155754,"featured_media":536033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[559,567],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-long-reads","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nThe times are a-changing | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The line \u201cAll this must change\u201d in American writer Henry Longfellow\u2019s poem K\u00e9ramos is certainly apt for the future of regulation and oversight in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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