Webinar: Building Certification

The 5th webinar, in the Building Safety Series - The Works we covered 'Building Certification'

The British Property Federation and Ark have been working in partnership to deliver a series of support programmes to help businesses build pathways to compliance. 

During the webinar, we explored:

• What information will be required to obtain the building certificate and what buildings will it be required for
• Who is responsible for providing the specific information to the regulators
  
  
• What impacts will this have over residents, local communities and interest groups

The webinar was chaired by Ian Fletcher from the British Property Federation and the speakers included:

• David Hills from Ark 
• Tim Galloway from Health and Safety Executive

Here is a snippet of some of the points David covered during the webinar:

Draft Building Safety Bill – Government Intent

The objectives of the draft Bill are to learn the lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire and to remedy the systemic issues identified by Dame Judith Hackitt.

Dame's report recommended a very clear model of risk ownership, with clear responsibilities for the Client, Designer, Contractor and Owner to demonstrate the delivery and maintenance of safe buildings, overseen and held to account by a new Regulator.

The new regulatory framework has to be outcomes-based and it must have real teeth so that it can drive the right behaviours.

This will create an environment where there are incentives to do the right thing and serious penalties for those who choose to game the system and as a result, put the users of buildings at risk.

The approach also looks to change the way we as an industry think about buildings and to see them as a “system” so that we can consider the different layers of protection that are in place or may be required to make that building safe on a case-by-case basis.

What we really need to be asking is “is this building safe”

Lastly, she felt that a risk-based approach to the level of regulatory oversight is needed if we are to deliver safe building outcomes.

Complex building systems that are designed for residential multi-occupancy have to be subject to a higher level of regulatory oversight that is proportionate to the number of people who are potentially put at risk.

Watch the replay to find out more!

• The pathway to better outcomes
• Mechanisms for Design and Construction Safety
• Mechanisms for Assuring In-Use Building Safety
• Registration and Certification - Mechanics and more...