On 22 March 2023, the first Building Safety Regulator (BSR) Conference took place at Central Hall, Westminster. The whole day event was attended by nearly 1,000 practitioners who were looking to develop their knowledge of the management and regulation of standards and safety of buildings, how the reforms will impact on them and their organisations, and how to get ready. The call to action is simple – be ready, step up and act now.
The BSR was created following Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 independent review of building regulations and fire safety and is one element of the Government’s building safety reforms since the Grenfell Tower tragedy on 14 June 2017.
Mark Reynolds co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council, and CLC Building Safety workstream leads, Peter Caplehorn, Graham Watts and Madeleine Coman joined panel discussions on how key industry networks and forums are working together to improve and drive competence standards across the built environment and a CLC hosted discussion on industry leadership and culture change.
The whole of the construction industry needs to transform both its approach to the design and construction of buildings, and its culture in relation to quality and safety to meet the requirements of the Building Safety Act. This will require investment in new technologies, workforce competency and capability, and greater collaboration between everyone. The panel discussed the work of the CLC and in particular, its ability to convene and support the industry to deliver high quality, safe buildings for all who live and work in them.
The panel discussion concluded with a simple and important question “If you could send a single line message to everyone in the construction industry about building safety today, what would you say?”
The message is simple.
Everyone across the built environment must take ownership and implement – be ready, step up and act now.
