Zurich Insurance has written to the Building Safety Bill Committee welcoming the progress of the Bill and the overarching framework, but wants to see more detail on how it will operate and how the requirements will be enforced.
Setting out its six-page submission, Zurich seeks clarity on the government’s intentions, asking the Bill committee to consider amendments that would change the building regulations regime: “To ensure it provides proportionate baseline health, safety, accessibility, and sustainability (including energy efficiency) standards for buildings of the future.”
In common with the FPA’s stance, Zurich confirmed its view that risk - not height - should be the central consideration of the new legislative regime for building safety and asks the Committee to amend the height threshold to embrace a more holistic understanding of risk factors.
“This would then necessitate a wider range of buildings to be brought into scope of the planning, and thereby that the construction and design side of the new regime ensures these buildings are built correctly to begin with.”
Zurich offered an alternative definition of a higher-risk building: one that it is at least 11 metres in height or has at least four storeys and for buildings of any height accommodating vulnerable adults and children.
The submission from Zurich urges the Committee to create a digital construction passport as part of a publicly accessible database of buildings materials and products, as well as techniques used during its construction. “The Bill presents the opportunity to deliver this construction passport as part of the golden thread of information.”
Zurich is also concerned that suggested changes to the Defective Premises Act, which would see the period within which legal action can be brought from six to 15 years on a retrospective basis. This will, said Zurich, likely create new exposures on existing insured risks overnight, as well as the potential some previously closed notifications to be opened up again.
The full submission can be found here.