Confusion grows over Building Regs
The Government will not attempt to fully enforce the Building Regulations, according to a senior official at the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).
“We are not going to get 100 per cent of buildings complying with the Building Regulations 100 per cent of the time,” said Ted King, principle mechanical and electrical engineer at the CLG. “We don’t have a Police State in this country, nor do we want one. It is far better to have phased compliance – and we are not that far away.
“You have to be realistic about what you can achieve. If we have most buildings mostly compliant most of the time, we are not doing badly,” added Mr King.
He said the current review of the local authority building control process, which ends on June 10, would seek to improve compliance with the Regulations while also reducing the cost burden on business and making the system more “customer focussed”.
“In short, we need it to work better,” he said.
'This is not regulation'
However, Mr King’s comments, which were made at the recent CIBSE/ASHRAE National Conference in Newcastle, have caused confusion in some parts of the building services sector.
“This sounds like [the Government] are talking about having a guide to good practice rather than true regulation,” said David Frise, former chairman of the M&E Sustainability group. “If that is what the Government wants, then wouldn’t it be better just to come out and say that? However, what then is the point of the Regulations?
“I don’t see how you can be partially compliant. Also, how do you decide if your building is going to be one that complies or partially complies? We are moving from the objective to the subjective and that cannot be a fair basis for enforcement.”
HVCA President John Miller has been a regular and vociferous critic of the Government’s “half-hearted” approach to enforcement of the Regulations.
“I find this mystifying,” he said. “We spent months and years in consultations about the Regulations. The industry was more than happy to support the Government by setting up a series of Competent Persons Schemes that would allow suitably qualified contractors to self-certify their work as compliant, so taking the strain off local authorities.
“These schemes remain the most workable route to compliance, but there must be an overall enforcement framework or there will be little incentive for companies to put their operatives through the appropriate training,” added Mr Miller. “If unregistered, unqualified firms can carry on flouting the regulations with impunity, why should anyone else put themselves to the considerable extra expense of training operatives properly and joining a competence scheme?
“How does the Government expect to hit its ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions from buildings if it will not rigorously support its own legislation?”
Abolish
A Conservative government would abolish the Building Regulations completely, according to the Shadow Environment Spokesman Peter Ainsworth.
Speaking at the recent Low Carbon World conference in London, he said the country should move away from “complex and unenforceable Building Regulations” and adopt building standards that remove our “obsession with the process and concentrate on what can actually be achieved”.