This week the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced the launch of a new regulator that ensures materials used to build homes will be safer. In these times of Government austerity and de-regulation, a new regulator is a surprising, but welcome addition to the building and construction safety family.
The launch follows the Hackitt review which came after the Grenfell tragedy and the Building Safety Bill that was published in Summer 2020. The Bill “set out the biggest reforms to building safety regulation for a generation, and included provisions to strengthen and extend the scope of the powers available to government to regulate construction products”.
From 2022 the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will assume responsibility for construction products. It may be that the regulator is based within OPSS.
This new regulator will have the power to remove any product from the market that presents a significant safety risk and prosecute any companies who do not follow the rules on product safety.
Currently, market surveillance and enforcement of construction products safety is the responsibility of under-funded local authority trading standards services. Trading standards services saw budget cuts of around 60% between 2010 and 2018 meaning that construction products are unlikely to be a priority in each of the 200 plus trading standards services.
Although general product safety is a priority within trading standards, it is a wide portfolio consisting of toys, electrical products and cosmetics amongst other areas. With £10m allocated towards this new regulator it will be interesting to see how this new regulator will work alongside trading standards services.
The regulator comes at a time when product safety is in focus. With the vast majority of product safety derived from European Union legislation, the move towards the UK deciding it’s own product safety priorities has begun and with Grenfell still in our thoughts, construction products seem to be the right place to start.
Adrian Simpson is Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the Home Insulation and Energy Systems Contractors Scheme (HIES), the Double Glazing and Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme (DGCOS) and the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Scheme (HICS). He is also an NHIC Non-Executive Director and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s Lead Officer for Renewables and Home Improvements.