Building Safety Bill

Written evidence submitted by Peter L Caplehorn , Chief Executive, Construction Products Association (BSB 17)

Construction Products Association Oral Evidence to Public Bills Committee (09Sept21)

Thank you again for the invitation to provide the Committee oral evidence on 09 September. Below please find supporting background information that we hope will be of help and interest to the Committee. Of course if there are any questions arising from this submission the CPA would be more than happy to help.

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The Construction Products Association is the leading organisation that represents and champions construction product manufacturers and suppliers in the UK. Approximately 75% of all construction products used here are manufactured here, reflecting an industry that underpins nearly every construction project in the country. Construction product manufacturing accounts for 10% of total UK manufacturing and a third of all UK construction turnover – a £63 billion industry of 24,000 companies employing 383,000 people, mainly across the Midlands and North.

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The CPA and its members fully acknowledge the dreadful circumstances that show the sector in very poor terms. The focus of our sector for several years now has been on reform, and creating a construction industry trusted to produce buildings and other built assets that are safe and perform at all times for the benefit of those who use and occupy them.

The Change Required

Though many firms, large and small, endeavour to uphold the highest levels of integrity and professionalism, as a whole the industry has come from a low base. The disasters from recent years have placed in stark relief its failings, and demonstrated the critical parts played by a deterioration of standards, poor focus on compliance, lack of understanding of regulations and diminution of both quality and ambition for a job well done.

What needs to be change? The CPA and its members are clear that significant change to culture and practice needs to happen. The Building Safety Bill is an important part of this change. The bill sets the scene for a much-needed, revised structure and way of doing business. The next stage of secondary legislation is key in creating the detailed landscape that will be so fundamental in the day to day operations of businesses across the industry.

From the outset, the CPA has been wholly supportive of the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackett’s review. As the review makes clear, change must be enacted in a joint operation between Government and Industry. So while work has been underway to develop the Government’s changes to legislation, the framework of regulators and the other necessary procedural initiatives, industry has also been working on many areas.

The Work Underway

This work has not garnered as much attention but many in industry have been taking a lead from Dame Judith’s review and investing considerable time and energy on a wide range of important changes and improvements. This work has until recently progressed with some caution, as industry first needed confidence from seeing the Government’s programme actually being enacted. With the publication of the bill, the Government maps out the clear route to new legislation but also signals clear intent to live up to previous announcements. Industry can now proceed with its actions safe in the knowledge that soon the new framework of the law will be in place.

One of the key actions of industry for nearly three years has been to thoroughly review and develop new approaches to competence amongst its workforce. More than 150 organisations from the construction, built environment, fire safety and owner/manager sectors have been involved. As part of this work, this autumn the CPA will launch its competence framework for any parties that would be interacting with construction products, such as manufacturers, architects, builders and procurers.

In a direct response to one of Dame Judith’s recommendations that industry should ensure key information about construction products is trustworthy, accurate and up to date, the CPA has developed the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI). Manufacturers signing up to this code have to provide all their products’ information in whatever media to align with 11 principles. The code will be independently administered and members audited by the Considerate Constructors Scheme, who also administer the Building Safety Charter. The code will go live this November.

In order for information about construction products to be verifiable and accurate, it needs to be digitalised. The CPA, in partnership with UKRI’s Construction Innovation Hub, has developed a process called LEXiCON to act as a framework for all product information. This will start to roll out before the end of this year. In addition to this and to further develop digital information, the CPA has worked with the British Standards Institution to provide a universal persistent identification number for each and every product. This allows immediate, efficient and accurate digital identification of a product.

In regards to the Government’s Building Safety Programme, the CPA is lending full support through a range of interactions such as MHCLG’s Industry Response Group, the competence committees, and more recently the Construction Leadership Council’s Building Safety Group, to ensure that the needed changes are implemented.

The real work is for the industry to recover respect for its output from the occupants and users of buildings. In addition, we must regain a respect and understanding for regulation and compliance, and not just lip service or gaming.

The Building Safety Bill and the Challenges Ahead

Clearly there is a need to ensure all buildings in the future are compliant with regulations, that the design is fit for purpose and verified as such, that the build quality reflects the design and specification, and that maintenance is undertaken as prescribed. In addition, we better understand now that occupants should always be supported to understand and have confidence in building safety and performance.

The bill is the next stepping stone toward this aim. There is a long way to go, for while much of industry is aware and a significant part is engaged, we now need to engage the rest and help them recognise that the changes underway are necessary and inevitable.

Buildings are complex systems. Anyone who thinks this is simple or easy does not understand the topic. Decades of custom and practice, shrinking away from regulatory compliance, a loss of rigour, degrading of direct responsibility and erosion of competence have all contributed to the current situation.

Equally though many will remember the Red Tape Challenge and pressure of deregulation that were highly detrimental and painted a false picture of what was necessary or burdensome. This allowed a continued poor focus on compliance, little verification and even less real sanction for errors. Equally though, we must now resist the consequent serious danger of disproportionate reaction.

The bill identifies the concept of a safe construction product and a safety critical product. Both are complex to define and operate in a practical framework. The CPA is keen to work with Government to develop an approach for these that will support those doing the right thing and penalise those who are not.

In conclusion, there are other factors that will have an impact that need resolution to ensure smooth deployment of the building safety programme.

Finally, I must add that we are concerned over a handful of other issues that are already impacting the industry and have the potential to distract or diminish the ambitions for building safety. These include the rollout of the new CA mark and consequent changes to the certification and testing landscape; changes to implement UK REACH; and mitigating as best we can the trading conditions resulting from world commodity shortages.

I hope that you will find this information useful and would welcome the opportunity to discuss these with you or the Committee in further detail.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter L Caplehorn,

Chief Executive

7 September 2021