News

The West Yorkshire Building Excellence Awards 2018 took place last Friday night in the Cedar Court Leeds/Bradford Hotel 2018.

Local authority building control employees celebrated alongside construction professionals, designers and architects at this glittering event hosted by LABC's own Lorna Stimpson.

Friday night saw 250 construction professionals and council building control workers gather for the LABC West Midlands Excellence Awards 2018 at the Telford International Centre. LABC's Head of Network Change and Transformation Richard Scott was host for the evening.

The LABC Building Excellence awards celebrate brilliant building projects and individuals and award technical know-how and team-working to get the job done.

The net economic benefit of public service building control interventions in construction projects could be as high as £1.85 billion.  That’s the view of academics at the University of Wolverhampton who have calculated this figure as part of a review of building control social return on investment.

At LABC’s Building a Safer Future Conference in Birmingham (Monday 18 June) over 200 construction industry professionals heard from experts about how the Independent Review of Fire Safety and the Building Regulations (aka ‘Hackitt review’) affects the sector and looked at best practice in implementing her recommendations.

Excellent construction was celebrated at the South East LABC Building Excellence Awards 2018 in Brighton on Friday 22 June 2018. 

The venue was once again the beautiful Brighton Grand Hotel and this year's winners and highly commendeds were announced by LABC's Business Development Director Anna Thompson.

Around 350 people gleaned from the construction industry and local council building control attended this sparkling event, and were royally entertained by local five piece band Lipsticks and Beatniks as well as a roving caricaturist and magician.

Almost 80% of builders and home owners are calling on the Government to introduce a licensing scheme for the UK construction industry to stamp out rogue traders once and for all, according to LABC partner, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

For the past two years LABC members have been developing a new approach to consistency and performance in local authority building control. 

Following nationwide consultation, changes to LABC’s Constitution and the establishment of a new Standards Committee LABC is now implementing quality management system (QMS) and 2015 ISO for the first wave of 50 local authority building control departments. 

It will also mean that local authorities will be subject to an independent audit from a UKAS accredited body.

The project at Pochard Fishing Lodge, Great Brickhill, Milton Keynes was awarded the title of Best Small Commercial Project at the Grand Final of last year's LABC Building Excellence Awards – one of the most recognised events on the building industry’s calendar.

A panel of industry experts judged a list of the highest quality projects from around England and Wales to reward the best in technical innovation, sustainability and design.

One of our surveyors was alarmed when called out on site recently for an excavation inspection. Above is what he saw.

The Building Regulations application was actually for a new foundation to connect the back of the house to the detached garage, but the builder had taken the opportunity to strengthen the house foundation at the same time.

This left more than 2m of masonry unsupported and both the first floor and roof spanned onto it. 

LABC has spent 18 months working on its 10 point plan, investing in standards, competencies and qualifications, drawing on expert advice from the Chartered Institute of Building, the Institution of Fire Engineers and the University of Wolverhampton.