One of the many recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report, published last September, was that contractors working on higher-risk buildings should be required to have a special license to do so.
RIBA gave an initial supportive reaction to the Grenfell report at the time but now, four months on, has produced a more considered, detailed response to the inquiry’s findings.
RIBA now says that the licensing of contractors should go further, and not just be restricted to so-called higher-risk buildings.
The government has a very lengthy and complicated explanation of what is a higher-risk building. (See it here.) The short definition is a multi-occupancy residential buildings of at least seven storeys or 18 metres high. RIBA says that this definition needs to be reviewed and extended to include assembly buildings and temporary leisure establishments.
RIBA says: “We agree with the recommendation that a licensing scheme operated by the construction regulator be introduced for principal contractors. However, we believe this should be wider than for higher-risk buildings. There is a concern about competence across many building types.”
It also says that the licence holders should be organisations – the company – rather than individuals.
RIBA’s call for building contractors to require a licence to operate mirrors a long-running campaign by the Federation of Master Builders, although the latter’s call for a licensing scheme comes from a very different place. The FMB wants a builders’ licensing scheme specifically for the domestic repair and maintenance sector because it thinks that will drive out rogue traders and lead to improved standards (and improved rates).
The licensing scheme recommended by the Grenfell report would be controlled and administered by a new all-powerful construction regulator, which would also be in charge of the testing and certification of construction products and also take in the new office of the Building Safety Regulator.
The Building Safety Act 2022 created the office of the Building Safety Regulator, within the Health & safety Executive, to regulate building control and oversee standards of competence. But the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report says this does not go far enough and more state control, more central regulation, more bureaucracy is the best way to clean up the construction industry.
RIBA seems to agree.
RIBA’s full response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report is at www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/formal-response-to-grenfell-tower-inquiry-phase-2-report
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase two report can be found at www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/phase-2-report
