Building safety

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) is asking the High Court to hold parent companies of some Grenfell Tower contractors liable for part of a £360m legal claim for tragedy-related costs. The council has launched claims at the court against firms directly involved in the work, including Rydon,…

There were no unsuccessful tenders to win places on the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR’s) higher-risk building framework, Construction News can reveal. Seven companies won places on the framework in October 2023 with LB Building Control winning an extra place last year, the BSR said. The framework sees the companies carry…

A newly established panel reviewing the building control system should release its recommendations by the end of this year, its chair has said. Dame Judith Hackitt was named last week as chair of the panel, established as part of the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s findings. It will…

This story was written with AI assistance from Harmsworth Who is Harmsworth? The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has launched early market engagement on a potential £35m framework covering a wide range of construction product testing services. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), which is part of…

 Former government chief construction adviser Paul Morrell detects more than a touch of politics in the government's long-awaited Construction Products Reform Green Paper “Always remember,” said a friend well used to the territory as I arrived for my brief spell in Whitehall, “that the primary business of politics is… politics”.…

Dame Judith Hackitt will chair the new panel of construction industry leaders that is being set up to look at how to improve local authority building control in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Building safety minister Alex Norris revealed the appointment this morning (1 April) as he appeared in…

More than 200 large panel system (LPS) tower blocks have been identified as requiring intensive safety-risk management by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). A spokesperson for the regulator told Construction News that since April last year, it had identified 202 LPS blocks within the first priority higher-risk building (HRB) group…

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is set to raise its charges by up to 5.1 per cent from next week. It will increase the prices of almost all services for which it charges from Tuesday 1 April, by between 4.6 and 5.1 per cent. As of Tuesday, clients will be…

Key issues remain unresolved despite government commitments post-Grenfell to enhance building safety and construction products certification, a panel of experts has said. Guests on the latest episode of the CN First Site podcast debated moves to change regulatory oversight for building safety following the government’s response to Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s…

More than 80 windowpanes are set to be refitted after they were installed inside-out during remediation work on one of the first high-rise estates evacuated following the Grenfell Tower fire. The windows were affected by the issue during a £77m remediation job to London Borough of Camden’s Chalcots Estate, causing…