LABC welcomes Communities and Local Government Select Committee findings

LABC, the organisation representing England and Wales’s 3,000 public sector building standards surveyors, has welcomed the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s report into the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety – the ‘Hackitt review’.

On building control the committee concludes, ‘In the context of building inspection services, we particularly welcome Dame Judith’s proposal that the industry should no longer be able to choose their own regulator and that there should be a single regulatory route for oversight of high-rise residential buildings through Local Authority Building Control. Indeed, we believe this principle should apply to a much wider range of buildings.’

It also highlights the need to ‘urgently address conflicts of interest throughout the industry’.

Commenting, LABC Chief Executive, Paul Everall, said, “LABC welcomes the conclusions of the select committee’s report, particularly in identifying the crucial need to end industry’s ability to choose its own regulator and the level of regulation.  We have been arguing for many years that this leads to a race to the bottom that results in the least intervention at the least cost.

“LABC has been working on our capacity and competencies for 18 months as part of our ISO backed Quality Management System.  And we are clear we have everything in place necessary to meet the demands of the new regulatory regime envisaged by Dame Judith and crucially also to deal with the conflicts of interests highlighted by the select committee”.

For media enquiries, or to arrange an interview, please contact Louise Williams by emailing louise.williams@labc.co.uk or ringing 020 8616 8120.