Building Safety Industry Initiative

Overview

All buildings must be safe and high-quality for the people who live and work in them.

Lessons need to be learned from the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire. Government and industry must continue to work together to ensure that this does not happen again.

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Building Safety workstream aims to support CLC and industry engagement with the Grenfell Inquiry, Building Safety Programme, new regulatory bodies and wider work for the built environment.

The aim is to identify and maximise effective links between the CLC and the work of the Building Safety Programme, HSE, OPSS and Industry Response Group. This includes targeted work to support key BSP principles (competence, products and golden thread), ensuring proposals are sustainable, the industry is ready for implementation of a new regulatory regime, and promotion of cultural change and leadership in the sector.

Objectives

• The Building Safety workstream aims to ensure effective links between the CLC and the work of the Building Safety Programme, Regulators and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) – led Industry Response Group.
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  This includes targeted work to support key building safety principles, supporting the delivery of key elements of the programme such as those focused on competency and product safety, and promoting cultural change and leadership in the sector.

• The workstream does not seek to duplicate what others are doing, instead the focus is on the contribution that the CLC is best placed to make, and those areas where it can add value to the wider Building Safety Programme.

Current activities

• Implementation of the competence frameworks across all twelve sectors through liaison with the Interim Industry Competence Committee, established as part of the proposed Building Safety Regulator.
• Supporting the BSI in the completion of the PASs’ for the Principal Designer, Principal Contractor, and Building Safety Manager (accountable roles under the Building Safety Bill).
• Establishing a new governance structure for the Competence Steering Group in tandem with the evolving relationship with the Building Safety Regulator and the Interim Industry Competence Committee.
• Through a number of initiatives, the performance of the product sector will be lifted in line with the new regulations. The Code for Construction Product Information, The Building Safety Charter and deployment of digitalisation through ‘BSI Identify’ and ‘LEXiCON’ will provide clarity certainty and openness of product performance.

Useful resources:

• Building a Safer Future Charter –
• Code for Construction Product Information 
• Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS)
• Open Building Safety Consultations