A blurring of boundaries across the industry poses a ‘major challenge’ to post-Grenfell Tower disaster efforts to improve building safety, a new report has warned.
The third and final report of the Competence Steering Group (CSG), entitled ‘A Higher Bar – Achieving a Competence-led Built Environment’, was published in January.
The report says: ‘Design boundaries have become blurred over recent years, and the issue of where responsibility lies is at the heart of the current debate.
‘The new inter-dependencies between product/systems manufacturers, architects and specialist contractors pose a major challenge to post-Grenfell reform.’
It says the CSG recognises that the construction sector is not yet ready for some of the ‘significant changes’ emerging out of the post-Grenfell Tower disaster building safety regime, and ‘continued support will be needed’.
The CSG’s work is being put on a more formal footing with the setting up of a new Industry Competence Steering Group. This will sit under the Industry Competence Committee, which has a statutory role advising on matters of competence.
The Construction Production Association’s digital and policy manager, Hanna Clarke, has been named the new group’s chair. She led the production of a CSG white paper on a proposed competence standard for the built environment, which is being taken forward by BSI to become a British Standard.
