A forum for open discussion on communities and local government policy.

Achieving Building Standards

The Government has recognised that there are some issues with the existing system of Building Regulation, including concerns about compliance and enforcement. In particular, the Government is interested in reviewing the effectiveness of its guidance, concerns about industry’s ability to find the right resources, and questions about whether Building Regulations are targeting the right things in the right way.

As a result we have initiated a programme of work to consider the current situation of Building Regulations and how we manage and maintain them, and to identify what we might do to improve this.

This topic will provide input to this work and will run until 13 December 2006. Below is a list of the points that we hope that this discussion will help us to address. We anticipate that many people will want to contribute to this discussion, so in order to manage the site more efficiently we will only be able to display responses which address at least one of the questions below, and which follow the discussion rules of this site.

  • Are building standards regulating for the right things in the right way?
  • Are these standards being achieved, and if not is there anything stopping them from being enforced?
  • What helps people to comply with them?
  • What stops people from complying with them?
  • How could we improve compliance and why will this work?

All of your views are welcome and will be even more effective if you state in which capacity they are made; either as a member of the general public e.g. home owner or as someone with a professional interest e.g. architect.

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Part P

Posted by mapj1 on 12/12/2006 - 17:47

to tgirvan

Some of your points I agree, but would like to ask what accident figures you consider would really justify the cost of what you suggest. Personally I think your response would be quite correct if the fatality figures were a few hundred per year. Remember its more than an order of magnitude less.

Also explain why only the UK, Eire and Malta do not permit normal RCD protected sockets in Z3 of a bathroom, and yet we have no fewer accidents in the UK than our continental cousins that do - its just that our exploding hairdryer fatalities occur in the bedroom, not the bathroom.

There are also those of us who do not see TNC-S as always being an improvemnt on TT, namely in areas with singles overhead feed, particularly if there is earthed metal work outdoors. Consider an amateur radio mast if you will, connected to the house earth/neutral - could become live by broken neutral if supply were made PME. Otherwise, if we go your way, I think a change to BS7671 is then required to allow the use of neutral loss detectors, (like in SA where copper theft from overhead lines is sadly common) as currently such a device is not allowed in the UK, as it interrupts the PEN.

Remember EEBADS does not work properly outdoors, and TT plus stacked RCD is much safer (hence the two RCDs plus TT preffered for caravan sites and Marinas - a caravan on a driveway, or an amateur shack plus outdoor antenna structure do have some similarities).

While Bs7671 requires cross bonding of bathroom plumbing, many other 230V countries don't, and their safety records are comparable to ours, it is not clear that missing green/yellow bonding is that great a crime, except in the eyes of the English ;-).

Agree with you fully on RCD protection, perhaps not however for lights, as risk of being plunged into dark (actually as an aside I often suggest C6 breakers for lighting circuits myself, for the same reason -to prevent one duff bulb removing the whole branch, which puts me at odds with the traditionalists of the electrical community).

Regulation of any kind will always cost you - a 'free' inspection, is only 'free' in a similar sense to NHS dentistry - in another way it probably costs you twice, once in tax and once again when you go to get it done.

It really does cost 80 quid to get a van and a man your door, I'm afraid, even if he does very little when he gets there. If you don't want to pay for it join me in saying his inspection is not needed in those cases when it adds little value.

PS I think you are lucky at 80 quid, - round here its more like £180, unless you can provide your own minor works cert or EIC, in which case no visit but still £60 to file it!! Why figures are quite so variable from district to district is a bit of a mystery to me.

Mike, G7VZY
(Senior Consultant Engineer, PhD Elec Eng.)
(and very cross about Part P)

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