BSR conference: cultural change is required to build trust and safety in residents

In May 2018, Dame Judith published her much-anticipated Building a Safer Future report, which called for an overhaul of the regulatory regime for tower blocks.

It was set up to review regulations after the Grenfell Tower fire, and in it she slammed the construction industry for engaging in a “race to the bottom”.

The report said current building regulations were “not fit for purpose” and put forward a number of recommendations, including the creation of a joint competent authority to oversee better management of safety risk in buildings.

The BSR only became the building control authority for all higher-risk buildings in England in October last year. A new branch of the HSE, it oversees compliance and regulates higher-risk buildings.

Mr McGrory, who was responsible for the development of the BSR residents’ panel, told delegates that one of the key concerns that came out of Dame Judith’s review was that residents felt “they did not have a strong enough voice”.

That is why residents should also be able to access information about safety in their homes, and the BSR will only issue a building safety certificate when it is satisfied with the quality of the resident engagement strategy.

Behaviour and cultural change were the themes of the conference. In his keynote address, the chief inspector of buildings told the packed main conference hall: “Without the right behaviour, we will continue to see poor outcomes and associated blame culture.”

Philip White, who took the role on permanently in December, said: “For me, it’s called behavioural change.

“Competence is not something you demonstrate once and forget about. It’s not an add-on or an afterthought. It’s about integrity, bringing knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience together to do the right thing even if no one was checking on you.”

Mr White acknowledged that the new building safety framework was going to come with implementation challenges, but said it was designed “to bring about a step change in the way building safety risks are managed”.

He said he knew many welcomed the changes, but some felt uncomfortable, because of a lack of certainty.

“For others, they never want to change, or they don’t know what the regulator’s expectations are. So things will be different, and change brings about some uncertainty. That may be uncomfortable, but we cannot hark back to how it was,” added Mr White.

He said a colleague recently shared a building control compliance statement with him as part of a building control application that had just one line of text.

“This just highlights to me that some are simply yet to hit first base on some of the fundamental changes that we’re looking for.

“We will continue to work closely with residents, industry stakeholders, and all regulatory partners as the system and our regulatory approach develop.

“We will be guided by the principles outlined in our recently published enforcement policies. We will be proportionate, and we will be consistent and transparent in our approach,” said Mr White.

At another session later in the day, delegates heard the government’s lack of response to construction product safety review was causing “a real problem”.