For many, the Hackitt report has turned out to be a something of a disappointment. Many industry organisations expected it to tackle perceived failings in the Building Regulations; the RIBA wanted a ban on combustible cladding, two means of escape and compulsory sprinklers on high-rise residential buildings. Others saw it as an opportunity to right long-standing grievances – for example, private approved inspectors wanted the same powers as local authority building control and for the latter to be subject to the same set of professional regulations.  

Instead, Hackitt has produced a high-level report that dismissed these concerns as symptoms of a wider malaise that could only be tackled from first principles.

It proposes a new, overarching regulatory framework that aims to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of those designing, building and maintaining multiple-occupancy residential buildings higher than 10 storeys. Those people would be governed by a new super regulator, the Joint Competent Authority (JCA), which combines the expertise of building control, the fire and rescue service and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). There would be clearly defined milestones at planning, design, delivery and handover stages that would require scrutiny and sign-off of the work to date before progressing to the next stage. Changes to the specification during design and construction should be digitally recorded and the as-built status of the building given to occupiers on handover.

Hackitt’s bid to bring some discipline to a fragmented industry where the right hand doesn’t have a clue what the left is doing is laudable and brave

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