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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Closing Statement

Posted by Kevin MacFarlane on 13/12/2006 - 17:03

This forum ran from 19th October to 13th December 2006 and is now closed.

We would like to thank all participants who have shared their views and experiences on the ‘Achieving Building Standards’ forum.
This forum has played a valuable part in providing feedback on the issues involved and has contributed to our thinking on the way forward.

Drawing on the oral and written evidence we received, as well as the contributions to this forum, we have now identified and confirmed the main issues surrounding the current system of Building Regulation. This has enabled us to develop our conclusions and recommendations for improving compliance with the Building Regulations and achieving Building Standards.

We have produced a draft report which is currently being considered by the Government. Our final report will be delivered in the New Year and further updates will be provided via the Communities and Local Government web site.

Also, this forum is being run within the Department of Constitutional Affairs’ ‘Digital Dialogues’ pilot. The pilot will explore the potential of information and communication technology to support central government communications and consultations. Support and evaluation is being provided by the Hansard Society, an independent, non-partisan charity, who would appreciate you taking the time to fill out their feedback survey (you need to be logged in to do so). This survey concerns your experience participating in the forum rather than being about achieving Building Standards specifically.

We hope that you have found this a useful way to contribute your views on current policy and emerging issues.

Kevin MacFarlane
SAIC Consultation Team

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