The Future of Building Control

Government department Communities & Local Government has published an Implementation Plan for it’s proposals on the Future of Building Control.

With a background of climate and demographic change & the apparent demand for more housing the Government wants a building control system that produces better compliance (at a reduced cost to users!) coupled with a greater understanding of what building control does and doesn’t do so as to better address the challenges of climate change & sustainability.

There’s also a focus on making the building control process easier for responsible builders possibly by widening the self-certification route to compliance. As the document states, the self-certification scheme currently involves areas of low risk but that the scheme could be extended into areas other than structure, fire & drainage.

I’m not entirely convinced myself that this would necessarily be a better way of doing things (I would say that wouldn’t I given that I want to earn a living getting building regulation approvals for people) but I have to say in my time as a builder I’ve never found the building control process particularly onerous or difficult.