Complex projects seen as potential area for the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to engage with applicants before applications to Gateway 2 are made
Speaking to Construction News, director of building safety at the HSE, Philip White has said that he does not oppose the BSR engaging with applicants to the gateway process, as the construction sector raises concerns over capacity issues at the regulator.
Heeding the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, he said, “we’ve got to be really careful about this, because we are regulating here.
“The Inquiry was very critical of building control. The report says building control needs to be ‘regulated vigorously’ – that was the wording used.”
However, whilst he was not convinced about the idea of pre-application advice, per se, he told the news outlet that he “wouldn’t be averse to some sort of pre-application engagement, particularly on complex projects.”
Suggesting a way that this could be achieved, he explained that this “could be a way of operating so that we understand what the concerns may be. There might be a few high-level pointers that we give to the applicant.”
Giving a view from industry, Adam Nicholson, McLaren Construction preconstruction director, said, “what we’re trying to suggest is a positive thing.
“We think the developer would pay for it the same as they would with a planning application, and fund it and start that engagement.
“While the regulator is building up its capacity and its team and its resource, it would be good if it could start developing this as a workstream.”
From the sector’s perspective, pre-application engagement would allow applications to be written that have a focus on the most important information the BSR require. This would in turn allow for smoother and quicker processing by the BSR.
Construction News also reached out to Dame Judith Hackitt for comment on the possibility of pre-application engagement, given her role in informing the structure of the gateway regime through her 2018 report.
She said that “the regulator isn’t set up to catch people out – the role of the regulator is to ensure that we get buildings that are safe and fit for purpose.
“How they choose to divide their time between acting as a gatekeeper and how much time they put into helping people raise standards to get through those hurdles is a subject for debate, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing that.
She did make it clear that getting the right balance between advice and regulating applicants is key, noting that the BSR “is not there to tell people what to do” and that “we’ve got to get this shift in ownership and responsibility.”