The investigative journalist who raised concerns about combustible cladding and high-rise buildings before the Grenfell Tower fire has warned the building services sector not to ignore new building safety regulations despite growing frustration over project delays and rising costs.
During his keynote address to a conference hosted by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), Peter Apps described the Building Safety Act as “unwieldy” and said there were widespread reports of projects being held up by new planning restrictions.
“People are finding the new regulations frustrating. [They say] ‘Why can’t we just get on and build?’…but there are long-term consequences if you do that,” he told the BESA Annual Conference. “Every change, every decision affects someone somewhere.”
He also said that the Prime Minister’s promise to “back builders not blockers” by tearing up “red tape” was concerning because of its implications for the new safety regime.
Apps, whose book about the Grenfell disaster Show Me The Bodies won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, warned the BESA Conference that there would always be people “who just want to make money out of you” and were prepared to ignore safety warnings. “Beneath the surface there is a lot of work that is not changing,” he said.
Layers
According to Apps, the industry continues to rely on the ‘Swiss cheese’ model which involves multiple safety layers, but each one has holes and project teams simply hope that one will prevent a fire spreading.
“We can’t keep relying on luck. We are still counting a lot of near misses…and the world is getting hotter so there will be more building fires,” Apps said, adding that there was a chance buildings would become less safe with the wider adoption of modern methods of construction and lightweight structures.
However, he told the conference that construction was “a great industry” and people working in it now had the opportunity to reform it “by ensuring every building we work on is safe”.
“However, we all need to be brave and ask the difficult questions that weren’t asked before the Grenfell fire,” he said. “There are people who were involved in that refurbishment project who would give anything to go back and do it [properly] again…their lives are now consumed by it. Don’t let that happen to you.”
Following his keynote address, Apps took part in a wide-ranging debate on the impact of the legislation with members of BESA’s Building Safety Act advisory group. The session identified considerable confusion among contractors about their specific responsibilities and a worrying lack of engagement from clients.
Contractors also said they felt under pressure to provide better evidence of their organisational competence and compliance with the new safety regime and to ensure their engineers were also technically competent. While many reported that they were “on the journey” to that goal, they said more specific guidance and support was needed.
In his welcome speech to the conference, which was attended by more than 350 delegates, BESA President Adrian Hurley (left) said there was a “common thread” running through the content focused on the importance of technical and professional competence and compliance “because this has implications for us all”.
He highlighted the success of the Association’s ‘Play it Safe’ guidance which is available online to help contractors identify their specific responsibilities under the Act. This was also the subject of a virtual reality demonstration during the Conference.
BESA’s director of competence and compliance Helen Yeulet reported that the Association was currently mapping routes to compliance for all building engineering trades covering the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviour (SKEB) required by the Act.
“To have a competent business, companies have to have competent people,” she said. “This is all about the industry doing the right thing, but it is also facing considerable economic pressures, so we have to get into the detail to find the best way of delivering this.”
A popular session heard that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would play an increasingly important role in plugging some of the sector’s skills and productivity gaps, particularly around routine calculations and project details where it could operate much more quickly than humans. However, delegates were warned that AI still had the capacity to make serious mistakes – and could even “tell lies”.
Wellbeing
Another panel session focused on retrofitting social housing to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) and protect the health and wellbeing of families. Adrian Lewis from Southern Housing called for a holistic approach that went beyond the installation of ventilation systems.
“It involves considering the building, insulation, heating systems, and occupant behaviour to create a balanced and effective solution,” he told the BESA Conference, adding that occupant engagement was another key consideration.
“A critical factor in successful retrofits is educating and engaging residents on proper ventilation practices, moisture control, and the importance of maintaining IAQ. This can help prevent issues like mould growth and ensure the longevity of retrofit improvements,” said Lewis.
Other highlights included the launch of BESA’s new Skills & Policy team in the conference’s dedicated Skills Zone that introduced employers to a comprehensive suite of training services and recruitment support along with guidance on how to identify and address skills shortages.
The journey to Net Zero was also scrutinised during the day including a discussion about how the industry can help to address the unprecedented challenge of retrofitting and refurbishing the UK’s existing 30 million buildings to meet climate change goals.
The water regulator Ofwat also hosted a session for the first time at a BESA Conference with director of innovation Dr Jo Jolly calling for closer collaboration with the building engineering sector to help improve water management in the built environment. With many parts of the UK facing severe water restrictions in coming years, she said more ‘smart’ solutions would be needed to improve water efficiency, particularly with high-tech applications like data centres requiring greater volumes of water for cooling.
The 2024 BESA Conference was sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric and set out to: ‘Inspire a better building engineering services industry for a safe, sustainable, and efficient future’. For more details of the event visit the website.