Hello All!
Let me introduce myself. I am Liz Bennett the fairly new Chair of the Building Safety Theme Group for Constructing Excellence SW.
I am a Fellow of the ICE and a practicing health and safety consultant and trainer with an interest in empowering others. Collaboration is at the heart of most of what I do.
The Building Safety Theme Group has been taking a deep breath after the sterling work to produce the Enlightened Clients Guide. If you have not seen this evolving and developing resource, I commend it to you, and those who produced it. Designed for Clients who are not used to building and construction projects such as School Governors, Primary Care Practice Managers and so on it is truly a really useful toolset for those who advise such clients. Want to know the headlines of different kinds of contracts? You can find information here. Need to know more about project risks and mitigation? Look in this guide.
What are we doing next and as well? There is the small matter of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and the host of regulations made under it. What does it mean for us all? What do we need to do? Do we all need to do something? Heeeeeelp! What CESW and the various Clubs across the Region are doing is holding CPD meetings. I attended a fascinating event in Plymouth. Thankyou Devon Club, our hosts Foote Anstey and all the incredibly insightful and knowledgeable speakers. Though next time I prefer not to be stuck in the lift and then have to stagger up to the 6th floor with an army of fit young professionals champing at my heels! As the Building Safety Regulator pointed out, who sprinted on ahead of me, this is the lot of firemen on a daily basis, also encumbered with breathing apparatus and so on.
What are we doing about all this? The BSA and its regulations put new checks and balances in place and require new skill sets to be engaged. Above all there is a requirement for third party checks on what we plan to do and do in fact do. A sad reflection that as an industry we cannot be trusted. There are many elements to the process and the ways in which the legislation needs to be applied on different types and sizes of buildings. We are likely to split into Task and Finish Groups working on particular activities and using Theme Group meetings to come together to share, challenge and plan the next steps. We will create clear space and information for this and if you feel you would be interested in being involved in a group, do let me know. What are the groups? We all need to decide so suggest what interests you here, what you need and we will consider it with you. A couple of suggestions for you:
· Cladding design and installation group
· Competence requirements group
· Golden Thread Group
· Safety Case Group
What do you want to add?
Not content with dealing with all this new post Grenfell work, as a Civil Engineer I am also involved in a range of projects and noticing that HSE is taking lessons from Grenfell to apply across the whole of industry. Can we be trusted? Why is GIRI [www.getitright.uk.com ] reporting we are still wasting around £20 billion every year due to error? Why are we forever making claim and counter claim and accepting unfinished projects and company failures as the norm? We are an amazingly creative and passionate industry full of incredible people. Because we can do better, we should do better. We must do better.
So HSE is looking hard at CDM 2015 compliance across all sectors. If you want to get to grips with the BSA 2022 you first need to be sure you know what you are doing in terms of CDM 2015.
My bet is you probably are not as certain as you should be. In all the hundreds of training courses I have delivered over the last 3-4 years only one group knew their way around the General Principles of Prevention. The senior leadership team from HS2. Do you? If you are part of a Principal Designer or Principal Contractor team you are told 3 times in law to apply these principles. That suggests they are important! You can find them in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 or in Appendix 1 to CDM 2015 in HSE publication L153.
Do you have an in-house list of the likely materials that you must by law include in the construction phase plan and thus by backwards extrapolation in the Pre-Construction Information? Schedule 3(2) speaks of these matters and has always been there. Have we done anything? The Design for Health Task Group (DfHTG) has a subgroup looking at this, can you help for your kind of project? Happy to promote your contribution if so. While I also chair the DfHTG which reports nationally into the Health in Construction Leadership Group, it is Gina of Britcon, CE National SME award winner, who is leading on this.
CDM 2015 is riddled with crucial elements that industry is ignoring. We are working on some of these. We will share some of what we are doing via the Building Safety Theme Group and would love you to join in. We are developing special versions of accredited and endorsed training for different sectors and various neuro diverse ways of communicating. Do you deliver training? Can we work together on this? We would love to share. We are especially looking for anyone who is deaf and working in our industry who would like to join us as we work with ITV Signpost to develop BSL courses by deaf people for deaf people. Next stop dyslexia…
If what we are all doing is in line with your personal ambition, corporate intent and takes us forward together, I believe we can do a huge amount. Let’s set to it.
Liz Bennett BSc PGCE CEng FICE CMIOSH FRSA Liz@safetyindesign.org.uk
Building (and Infrastructure) Theme Group Chair
A technological revolution is coming. Something we have had every 50 years or so, beginning with the Industrial Revolution. Each wave or revolution has generated a great surge of development and immense wealth creating potential.
Through a combination of interrelated new products, technologies, industries, infrastructures, and organisational and managerial innovations, these waves produce a quantum jump in the potential for increasing productivity, embracing all or most sectors of the economy, and opening up an unusually wide range of investment and profit opportunities.
Such a radical transformation of the prevailing technical and managerial common sense for best productivity and most profitable practice is often termed a ‘paradigm’ shift because it is so pervasive and impacts on almost any industry or endeavour and wider society.
As we ride the sixth new wave and enter the new paradigm, there is much that we can we learn from the previous paradigm shifts.
For example, history tells us that a new paradigm is not just a new range of products and systems but most influential of all is the dynamics of the relative cost structure of all possible inputs to production. These inputs fulfil several conditions including clearly perceived and rapidly falling relative cost.
Amongst the other features of these waves is that these inputs or ‘key factors’ have the power to transform the rules of decision making and common-sense procedures and the ways of working established in the previous paradigm.
But, in the shift to a new paradigm, history tells us there are concerns as well as benefits, losers as well as winners. Take the case of the fourth wave (between the 1930s and 1980s). The rise of mass production and the proliferation of automobiles and aircraft spawned highways, and airports generated huge wealth but also stored up a significant legacy of problems such as degradation of the planet and its resources, and health and climate issues resulting from burning fossil fuels.
The next technological-economic shift is now here and we are beginning to see the new opportunities – but also the challenges – it presents. Mustafa Suleyman, one of tech’s true insiders, a technologist, entrepreneur, and visionary, in his book The Coming Wave, offers us an erudite, clear-eyed guide to the deep economic, technological, social, and political challenges that lie ahead in the new wave.
Sulyeman vividly explains that generative AI, synthetic biology, robotics, and other innovations are improving, becoming cheaper, spreading rapidly, and presenting exhilarating opportunities.
But he warns they pose threats too, being sufficiently powerful and pervasive to reshape every aspect of society including the distribution of power and wealth, the nature of warfare and work, and even human relations.
Construction will be affected by and play a significant role in the new wave. As in previous waves, we will provide the infrastructure to support the new technologies and industries. After all, we built the mills that spawned the Industrial Revolution and the vast factories that housed the growth of the automotive industry in the fourth wave, between the 1930s and 1990s.
Previous paradigm shifts have been fuelled by burning fossils. Now just think for a moment about the effort needed to transform our massive infrastructure from one based on oil and gas to one focused on clean electricity.
The coming wave will need to be fuelled by clean electricity, produced through a massive increase in nuclear and renewables coupled with a decentralisation and rewiring of the National Grid to accommodate more offshore wind by 2030.
As well as providing the physical infrastructure for the emerging industries we can also see the new technologies being deployed within the built environment, enabling SMART building solutions, and using AI for better product design, project management and raising productivity. And we already have virtual and augmented reality, drones, digital twin, 3D laser scanners, 4D simulation, BIM and 3D printing.
And the downsides? As in previous shifts there will be significant pitfalls. Not least that these technologies and new ways of working may be used to increase power differentials between construction’s main players resulting perhaps in more opportunistic behaviour and greater discrimination and inequality.
Indeed, some forecast that the coming wave promises to provide us with godlike powers of creation and one of our greatest challenges is to devise forms of governance that harness the benefits of AI and biotech whilst avoiding the dangers, and retaining power over entities that may be more powerful than ourselves. In other words, the coming wave could make the next decade the best in human history, or the worst.
We are delighted and proud to see that CESW members Nicola Bird and Natalie King of AccXel have been featured in the Sunday Times. The piece not only highlights the prevalent challenges in construction to address equity and equality, but also the great things that are happening in Gloucestershire!
“From simulators in school classrooms to mentorship programmes, companies are working hard to bring more women and diversity to their workforce, as leaders reveal
Sisters Nicola Bird and Natalie King never expected to go into construction. The pair make up the third generation of family business KW Bell Group – a construction company based in Gloucestershire worth £90 million – but each pursued alternative careers prior to this. Bird was a teacher before joining the family firm 14 years ago, while King trained as a lawyer. Now the pair are inspiring a new generation of talent after founding AccXel, the UK’s first female-run construction school, which is co-funded by KW Bell and the government’s Getting Building Fund….”
Read the full article here on The Sunday Times website: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/static/kw-bell-nicola-bird-natalie-king-lloyds-bank/
The benefits of Collaboration and Collaborative Working have been promoted for some thirty years by Constructing Excellence through various reports and initiatives – all as ‘fresh’ and pertinent today as they were when written and published. Yet as a way of working Collaboration has yet to be fully accepted and adopted as a powerful way of working by the sector. Why?
Part of the problem is that many leaders and their organisations believe that they are ‘doing it’ whereas the reality is that they are not. The second part of the problem is that leaders really don’t understand Collaboration.
There are two different problems here with this article’s focus being on the second part of the problem.
As a starting point an AI search on ‘what is the opposite of collaboration’ revealed that there are 7 key areas that prevent collaboration. Fascinatingly, these 7 points were actually confirmed through our research published earlier this year in January. This research revealed that the very beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that are played out everyday by leaders and their people across the sector are exactly ‘What Collaboration Isn’t’ with these being:
· Individualism – ‘Leadership is organisational centric and thus vertically focused’ with ‘individual and organisational goals get[ting] in the way of working collaboratively’.
· Lack of Communication – ‘Communication is vertical within each organisation with limited flow between the organisations’ with ‘meetings being poorly co-ordinated with little if any collaborative problem-solving’.
· Competition – ‘People come with ‘win-lose’ mindsets’ with ‘people guarding both their organisations and territory’.
· Hoarding resources – ‘Organisations do little to no planning together so hindering collaboration and daily working’ so that ‘when there is a problem things can quickly turn to finger pointing’.
· Resistance to learning – ‘Organisations are selected for a contract on the basis of cost without regard to whether their cultures align or foster Collaboration’ with ‘People receiving no training in the principles of collaboration nor how to work collaboratively’ that results in ‘a failure to recognise and understand the costs of disagreement and disputes’.
· Siloed Working – ‘There is a lack of desire between the organisations to create an overarching agreed objective that brings them together to Collaborate’ with ‘existing organisational structures and processes remaining unchanged’.
· Lack of Trust – ‘People are wary of trusting, sharing and building relationships with others’ with ‘past poor relationships influencing the current relationship and the current situation’
It is only by acknowledging that these are ‘What Collaboration Isn’t’ that the sector can begin to commit to the changes and transformation it needs to make if it is to succeed in an increasingly complex and challenging environment.
CICI was established to drive and help support organisations and their people in working more collaboratively and effectively through providing training and development services based upon evidence – this and continued research. To understand more you can read the CICI Research Report of January 2023 in full depth at bit.ly/CollabRes23
Rishi Sunak gives closing speech at Conservative Party Conference
Rishi Sunak’s closing speech announced the scrapping of HS2 north of Birmingham, with the £36 billion saved to be reinvested into a ‘Network North’ which will focus on other new transport projects across the North and Midlands. These will include electrified train lines between Sheffield and Manchester, Leeds and Hull, funding for the Midlands Rail Hub, a new station at Bradford, money to fix potholes and protecting the £2 bus fare cap. Sunak also announced The Advanced British Standard, a new qualification that will combine A Levels and T-Levels and will require students to study five subjects including Maths and English until they are 18.
Further details on the Network North Proposals are available here: Network North – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
£80 million released for home upgrades to help cut energy bills in social housing
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced the release of £80 million for social housing tenants. This comes from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and will give 9,500 social housing tenants grants to make their homes warmer and more energy efficient. It is predicted this additional funding will lower bills by £240 a year on average, and that 2,000 jobs will be supported by the installation process of these energy efficiency upgrades.
Long-Term Plan for Towns released, setting out investment to regenerate 55 towns
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has released its plan for the long-term regeneration of 55 towns across the UK. This includes the £80 million of investment in four Welsh towns, and £140 million across seven Scottish towns.
Biodiversity Roadmap Consultation Launched
The CLC’s Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain Working Group’s (a workstream of the Green Construction Board) consultation on its Biodiversity Roadmap. The roadmap aims to ensure that more nature is embedded in the built environment and that the agenda moves from biodiversity net gain to environmental gain.
The consultation document and the accompanying thought piece can be accessed via this link: https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/news/biodiversity-roadmap-consultation-launched/
Publication of New Fire Safety Guidance
The Home Office have published 2 new pieces of fire safety guidance.
- Fire Safety Order: enforcement and sanctions for non-compliance
The guide explains how the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (as amended) (FSO) is enforced and advises of the sanctions that are available to Enforcing Authorities if you fail to comply with this legislation.
More information can be found here.
- A guide for persons with duties under fire safety legislation
This guidance will help you to find out whether you are a Responsible Person or Duty Holder under the FSO and what responsibilities you have for fire safety. More information about this can be found here.
Building Control for Higher-Risk Buildings
On 1st October, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) became the Building Control Authority for all higher-risk buildings (HRBs) in England.
This means that developers will no longer be able to choose the building control body they use for building new residential buildings that are over 18-metres or 7 storeys and hospitals and care homes that meet the same height threshold.
Developers must also apply to the BSR for building control approval before starting building work on any projects involving HRBs.
COLLABORATIVE PROCUREMENT WILL BE AN ENFORCEABLE BENCHMARK FOR COMPLIANCE WITH BUILDING SAFETY LAW.
We were pleased along with members to support the Procurement Advisory Group for the Building Safety Programme in the development of the Guidance on Collaborative Procurement for Design and Construction to Support Building Safety (publishing.service.gov.uk).The Health and Safety Executive Building Safety Regulator (‘BSR’) will implement the DLUHC ‘Guidance on Collaborative Procurement for Design and Construction to Support Building Safety’ as endorsed by Dame Judith Hackitt and announced by the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove MP in the House of Commons in January 2022.The Guidance includes 13 crucial questions (A-M) to be raised by the BSR at the ‘Gateways’ preceding planning consent, commencement of construction and occupation, which are designed to ensure that the client, designer, contractor and other dutyholders adopt:– ‘Selection by value that avoids a race to the bottom’– ‘Early supply chain involvement that improves safety and reduces risks’– ‘Collaborative relationships that improve commitments and involve residents’– ‘A golden thread of information that integrates design, construction and operation.’The Health and Safety Executive has stated that:– ‘The Guidance is a very important document for clients to enable them to understand the new legislative requirements and importantly how to operationalise these.’– ‘From a regulatory point of view the BSR will consider the guidance as an “establish standard” on the basis it was created by an expert panel including the Procurement Advisory Group and endorsed by Government through DLUHC’. – ‘BSR will view the guidance (most notably questions A -M) as one benchmark for compliance with the law, particularly in relation to clients’ duties regarding:(a) the strategies, policies and procedures the client has adopted for planning, managing and monitoring the HRB (high-rise building) work(b) the strategies, policies and procedures the client has adopted to identify, assess and keep under review the competence of the persons (including PD and PC) carrying out the HRB work(c) the strategies, policies and procedures the client has adopted to support co-operation between designers, contractors and any other persons involved in the HRB work.’
THE WEEK IN POLICY
Government launches Great British Insulation Scheme
On Thursday (14 September), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced a new £1bn scheme to help families in lower council tax bands with energy efficiency upgrades such as roof, loft and cavity wall insulation. Those eligible for support under the Great British Insulation Scheme include families in council tax bands A-D in England, A-E in Scotland and Wales, with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or below. The Department estimates that more than 300,000 families will benefit from the scheme, which will run alongside the Energy Company Obligation Scheme.
Angela Rayner MP gives speech to TUC Congress
On Wednesday (13 September), the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Angela Rayner MP, delivered a speech to the TUC Congress in which she branded the Conservative’s Levelling Up policy a “sham and a scam”. During the speech, Rayner detailed Labour’s plans to pass a law to improve workers’ rights within the first 100 days of entering office. This includes plans to update union laws, outlaw blacklisting, ban zero-hour contracts, and repeal legislation that enforces “minimum service levels” in some sectors during strikes.
Letter from Secretary of State for DLUHC to announce the publishing of guidance to providers of residential accommodation in addressing the health risks of damp and mould
On Monday (11 September) the Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove MP sent a letter to social housing providers, highlighting guidance published on 7 September on the health impacts of damp and mould in the home. This was part of the Government’s response to the Coroner’s report into the death of Awaab Ishak. Gove states that the Government is clear damp and mould “should not be dismissed as a ‘lifestyle choice’ and that action to remove pervasive damp and mould must be taken by landlords”. Alongside an overview of the new guidance, Gove concludes “it is all our responsibilities to work together to improve standards in the rented sector”.
Levelling Up Committee Chair writes to the Government on RAAC housing risks
Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, has written to Lee Rowley MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety, to request an update on the risk of RAAC in social and private housing. Betts notes: “There are well-publicised concerns about the use of RAAC in public buildings such as schools and hospitals but there is also concern about the use of RAAC in housing. It’s important the Government spells out its assessment of the risk in residential buildings, in social housing and local authorities’ estates and what guidance it is giving to residents and landlords on the risk of RAAC.”
IN THE NEWS
The day Essex schools warned of cracked concrete ceilings – 30 years ago – The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times reports on the investigations undertaken by BRE into RAAC since 1994. It states ‘almost three decades later, the significance of those early tests is at last apparent’. The article also provides a timeline on the usage of RAAC, from its invention in 1923, to its post-war use and historical panics about cracks in the material. Commentary is included from Professor Chris Gorse, who claims: “RAAC is not an inherently poor material. In the right conditions, it can work after 40, 50 years. We’ve got to be careful not to overreact and demolish or retrofit all RAAC buildings. What we have got to do is inspect, monitor and survey the buildings to make sure that they are safe.”
Heating on prescription scheme suggests fewer NHS visits – BBC News
BBC News reports that a scheme that paid the heating bills of some NHS patients last winter has indicated that those taking part visited their GP less often. Included is the example of James Smith, a sufferer of a lung disease who was given ‘massive relief’ from being able to keep warm. The BP funded Warm Home Prescription study started as a small trial of 28 people between December 2021 and March 2022, before expanding to 486 households in Aberdeen, 292 in Middlesborough, 23 in Gloucestershire and 22 in London.
COMING UP NEXT WEEK
Monday 18th September: The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee will have its eighth day of Report Stage debate. The Environmental Audit Committee will hear oral evidence on heat resilience and sustainable cooling.
Tuesday 19th September: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will face oral questions in the House of Commons. The Education Committee will hear oral evidence on unsafe concrete in education settings.
Wednesday 20th September: The House of Commons enters recess and will next sit on 16 October. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will have its Third Reading.
Claire Coutinho replaces Grant Shapps as Energy Secretary
Today, the Government confirmed that Claire Coutinho is to take up the post of Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), replacing Grant Shapps who was named as the new Defence Secretary. Claire Coutinho has previously served as Minister for Disabled People and Minister for Children in the Department for Education, and is currently the Conservative MP for East Surrey having been elected in December 2019.
Parliament returns from summer recess
Both Houses of Parliament return from summer recess on Monday and will sit until conference recess begins on the 23rd September. Parliament will then resume on the 11th October.
Hydrogen levy on household energy bills axed
The Government confirmed earlier this week that a proposed £120 annual levy on household energy bills to cover the cost of producing hydrogen is to be axed. The tax would have taken effect in 2025 as part of plans to replace fossil fuels. The Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, Grant Shapps, tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill on Tuesday (29 August) that would stop the levy being paid for via energy suppliers and their customers. Instead, companies that buy and transport gas will shoulder the burden of hydrogen’s extra cost. Labour called the move was a “humiliating U-turn”. The Government says hydrogen could play a “critical role” in meeting net zero, and has been legislating via the energy bill to support development of low-carbon ways of producing hydrogen, including electrolysis and renewable energy.
Government announces new steps to accelerate Sizewell C preparations
On Tuesday (29 August), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero issued a press release announcing that £341 million worth of investment would be made available to speed up preparations to make the site at Sizewell C in Suffolk “shovel-ready”. The extra money will help prepare the site for construction, procuring key components from the project’s supply chain, and expanding its workforce. The additional funding is part of the Government’s plans to expand nuclear energy in the UK, with the aim of nuclear powering up to a quarter of UK electricity demands by 2050.
Government announces plans to scrap housebuilder water pollution rules, claiming move will enable 100,000 more homes to be built
On Tuesday (29 August), the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove announced plans that mean developers will no longer have to offset the nutrient pollution caused by sewage from new homes. Through an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, the Government will scrap a “defective” legacy EU law on net nutrient neutrality rules. The rules were first put in place in 2017 when the UK was still a member of the European Union and recommended that in dozens of protected areas across England, local authorities should not give the go-ahead to any new development that is projected to add to river nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates, either through wastewater from new homes or run-off from building sites.
Gove claims that “doing away with this red tap” will allow for the delivery of more than 100,000 new homes. In an attempt to quell the concerns of environmentalists, the Government has said it will double Natural England’s wetland funding to £280m in order to show it is trying to meet the requirements of its legally binding Environment Act. However, The Guardian reports the extra £140 million will come from the public purse. When asked by The Guardian whether this meant the taxpayer was now picking up the bill for pollution caused by developers, a Government official responded “yes”, adding that while “the polluter pays principle is very important”, it was having too many adverse impacts on small- and medium-sized housebuilders.
IN THE NEWS
Schools with dangerous concrete race to replan start of term – BBC News
BBC News reports that more than 100 schools in England are scrambling to make arrangements after being told to shut buildings with a type of concrete prone to collapse. Schools found with buildings containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) have been told they must introduce safety measures, which could include propping up ceilings. A “minority” will need to “either fully or partially relocate” to alternative accommodation while those measures are installed, the Department for Education (DfE) has said. A few publications have referenced BRE’s 1996 report on RAAC in their write-ups of the news, which advised the Government to inspect buildings with this material.
More than a million face £720 ‘leaky home surcharge’ on energy bills – The Telegraph
The Telegraph reports on new research from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) which warns that more than a million people living in older houses will pay £720 more for heating this winter. It comes as the energy regulator Ofgem announced last Friday a reduction in the energy price cap from £2,074 to £1,923 from October, as a result of falling gas and oil prices. Those in older properties face paying even more due to their properties being less energy efficient. The fuel poverty charity National Energy Action said the cost for the least efficient homes would be even higher, putting it at around £900, while estimating there around 1.5 million such homes in Britain. Jess Ralston, an analyst at the ECIU, said the Government’s “Great British Insulation Scheme”, which was formerly known as ECO+, has “flatlined”. The energy efficiency project aims to spend £1bn on properly insulating 300,000 homes, saving consumers up to £400 a year on their energy bills.
Regulator to recruit 100 new staff to deal with extra powers – Inside Housing
Inside Housing reports that the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is aiming to boost its workforce by nearly 50% with 100 new staff members as it gears up to take on extra powers. The public body, which currently has 226 employees, has launched a recruitment drive after being handed new powers under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act. The RSH is currently advertising for up to four assistant directors of regulatory engagement, an assistant director of assessment and tenant engagement, and a tenant engagement manager. Under the new legislation, passed last month, the RSH will have the power to carry out regular inspections of social landlords and issue unlimited fines. New consumer standards to protect tenants will also be enforced by the regulator, with the regime due to go live next April.
Millions of UK homes urgently need energy efficiency improvements – Time we “Help to Fix” says construction sector – Politics Home
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has written in Politics Home calling for a long-term strategy including a government loan scheme to boost retrofitting of UK homes. The CIOB claims a loan scheme which enables homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties is needed if the UK is to reduce energy consumption, cut carbon emissions and bring down consumer bills. The call has been made in response to the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee’s recent ‘Heating our Homes’ inquiry, where the CIOB also reiterated previous calls for the Government to support the Construction Leadership Council’s National Retrofit Strategy. The CIOB says previous government schemes such as the Green Homes Grant and Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) have failed for several reasons, most notably that homeowners were required to part fund energy efficiency work in a lump sum. For many this simply wasn’t an option at the time the schemes were on offer, especially not during a cost-of-living crisis.
UK pension funds write to prime minister over net-zero policies – Professional Pensions
Professional Pensions reports that a group of UK pension funds have written to the Prime Minister warning that recent public statements and policy decisions regarding the net zero transition are impacting investor confidence. Members of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), including major pension schemes such as the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS), Local Government Pension Scheme Central, Railpen, Scottish Widows, the People’s Partnership, TPT Retirement Solutions, Aegon and Aegon Asset Management, warned that recent moves to dilute or delay decarbonisation policies would impact the ability of financiers to provide the estimated £50bn to £60bn of annual investment required to deliver on the UK’s legally-binding climate goals.
The letter said: “We are writing to express concern at government’s recent public statements and policy signals, which risk undermining the UK’s leadership in the clarity, certainty, and confidence of policymaking toward meeting the UK’s commitment to net zero. This shift blurs regulatory visibility for investors and risks the ability of the finance sector to make the large-scale, transformative investments required to accelerate net-zero delivery and unlock growth in the UK.”
