CABE Building Engineer March 2023

Publisher: Tiffany van der Sande

Editor: Rebecca Davies-Nash

Designer: Joe McAllister

Sub-editor: Amy Beveridge Production: Aysha Miah-Edwards

20 Social responsibility

What are the implications following the death of a toddler from exposure to mould in his home?

24 Come together

Dr Mark Key explains how global building standards must become aligned

26 Getting your house in order

The construction industry braces itself for big changes to HRB safety criteria

28 A breath of fresh air

How can efficient ventilation help meet net-zero targets?

30 It’s good to vent

Sam Bader gives guidance on fire safety and NSHEVs

33 Fire safety

The latest on the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 INSIGHT

34 All in

Building Engineer has been carefully prepared but articles are published without responsibility on the part of the publishers or authors for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any view, information or advice included therein. Articles published in Building Engineer do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), nor do CABE, the publishers, or authors endorse or accept any responsibility for any claims made by advertisers. Advertisers are responsible for ensuring that the material submitted for inclusion is accurate and free from error.

ISSN: 0969-8213

Welcome

Throughout January and February, the Association has been busy with regional and national AGMs. It’s the opportunity to meet as many members as possible to explain what CABE is doing for and on behalf of members. The AGMs showcase where the Association continues to be successful, but also the latest challenges and what aspects need changing in response to the issues members face. I hope you saw the annual statement in January’s edition, which shows that the Association continues to grow positively.

Following the pandemic and with changes to the regulatory regimes in many jurisdictions around the world, notably the UK’s reforms to its building safety standards, the Association must respond to the significant changes ahead. Additionally in England, the introduction of the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) creates new regulated duty-holding roles for High-Risk Buildings (HRBs), and introduces requirements for the mandatory registration of building control professionals in the coming year.

I am pleased to report that for those undertaking duty-holding roles in HRBs, CABE has now submitted its application to the Engineering Council to offer contextualised registration, becoming the first professional engineering institution to do so, and once approved we will be able to offer members a route to demonstrate competency.

For those members working in building control, significant uncertainty remains as to exactly what they will need to do as the final competency standards and registration requirements have not yet been set by the BSR. CABE has engaged proactively with the BSR and has submitted proposals as to how members could demonstrate their competence as building inspectors.

Those discussions are ongoing, but members should be reassured that our aim is to provide suitable and robust routes to registration as soon as we’re able to do so in a manner that BSR deems appropriate.

The other major change this year is CABE’s events programme. Following the pandemic, demand for inperson events is very different and has resulted in many of our established activities becoming financially unviable – this includes our traditional annual conference. So in 2023 we will be trying something a bit different by introducing the CABE Built Environment Series. The series comprises several events focused on performance, compliance and safety in the built environment that will be held throughout the year across the UK and Ireland. This will include conferences with content tailored to their locality, a significant presence at a large live trade event in London and a separate awards programme. This adds to our continued support of regional activities with the overall aim of getting more information, to more members, in more locations, at a lower cost.

Also at this time of year there is the election of board members. Voting closed on 3 February 2023 and I’m pleased to announce that from May this year, Zoe Cox will become Vice President. Joining the board as Ordinary Members are Michael Wadood and Veronica Fiore. Congratulations to the successful candidates, and thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time to support the Association this year.

“In 2023 we will be trying something a bit different by introducing the CABE Built Environment Series”

The briefing

F

These Regulations strengthen the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, clarifying what should be included in fire risk assessments of multi-occupancy residential buildings, and focuses on two essential fundamentals: the structure and external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies and windows; and all doors between domestic premises and common parts of the building.

The Door & Hardware Federation’s (DHF)

Patricia SowsberyStevens said: “The implications for responsible persons are to focus attention on elements of buildings that some fire risk assessments have previously overlooked. Responsible persons should consider whether a more in-depth assessment of the external walls is required, particularly if their building uses cladding.

“The new rules primarily apply to highrise buildings where responsible persons must undertake monthly checks on lifts and other key firefighting equipment intended for use by firefighters, reporting any defects to the fire and rescue service if they cannot be fixed in 24 hours; install information boxes with name and contact details for the responsible person, and a copy of the floor plans; provide building plans to their local fire and rescue service, and keep a secure copy on-site; maintain up-to-date information on external wall systems, including the design and

materials involved; and erect wayfinding signage with flat and floor numbers to make the exit routes clear in low light or smoky conditions.

“It is important to note that in residential buildings over 11m in height, responsible persons must make quarterly checks on fire doors connecting common parts of the building and make every effort to carry out annual fire door checks of flat entrance doors. However, all multioccupied residential buildings, regardless of height, must provide fire door information so residents can understand the importance of fire doors, as well as fire safety instructions to residents.”

WOMEN

IN

Fire safety reform

What does it mean to be a registered environmental professional?

The Society for the Environment (SovEnv) podcast, known as EnvCast, is designed to provide insight into the backgrounds, roles and career journeys of registered environmental professionals. What drives them? How did they get to where they are today? What advice would they give to others? We pose these questions and more to a guest each month.

Who’s featured?

The selection of guests featured on EnvCast is as diverse as the register is, with podcasts featuring environmental experts from across a variety of sectors and disciplines. Areas of expertise range from the built environment and air quality to water and engineering. Just some of the guests featured include:

Dr Gavin Dunn, Chief Executive of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE)

Stephen Wielebski CEnv, leading Principal Partner at Independent Construction and House Building Consultant; and

David Inman CEnv, Director and Chartered Environmental Surveyor at DIEM Ltd.

Get Inspired

Search for EnvCast via a podcast provider or head to the SocEnv Knowledge Hub (bit.ly/ SovEnv_hub) to find out more. Be sure not to miss any of the podcasts by subscribing.

Interested in taking part?

If you are a Chartered Environmentalist and interested in being a guest on EnvCast, we want to hear from you. Get in touch today at bit.ly/SovEnv_mail

CABE is licensed by the Society for the Environment to award the professional registrations REnvTech, REnvP and CEnv to members.

To discover more, or to apply for registration, visit cbuilde.com/socenv

LGA responds to damp and mould findings

Responding to the initial findings of the Regulator of Social Housing on damp and mould, Councillor Darren Rodwell, Housing Spokesperson at the Local Government Association (LGA), said: “Councils continue to fully support efforts to inspect homes and drive up standards in both the social housing and private rented sector. While this study shows that the majority of social

housing is safe and decent, councils are determined to improve housing conditions for all tenants.

“The LGA continues to work with professional bodies and the government to discuss possible solutions on improving housing standards – including those relating to damp and mould in tenanted properties.”

For more, see page 20.

Feel the benefit

Every household will be within a 15-minute walk of green space or water under the new environmental improvement plan (EIP) for England set out by the government.

The plan includes commitments to restore at least 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of wildlife habitat and 400 miles of river. This will include 25 new or expanded national nature reserves and 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of new woodland along England’s rivers. A species survival fund will target some of the most threatened wildlife, including hedgehogs and red squirrels.

Heat investment

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced government investment of £32m in a new Heat Network Efficiency Scheme, which will make existing heat networks

Sewage spills are to be tackled with upgrades to 160 wastewater treatment works by 2027.

The plan acknowledges the increasing pressures on the water system from pollution, new housing developments and the climate crisis, with a further strategy coming later in the year.

From November every government department will also have an obligation to consider the environmental and climate impacts of each new policy and piece of legislation.

For the full story, visit bit.ly/ guardian_15mins or read more on  page 34.

in England and Wales more energy efficient.

Cara Jenkinson, Cities Manager at Ashden, welcomed the funding to upgrade existing heat networks. She noted: “[They] are often inefficient, resulting in increased CO2 emissions and higher bills for households.

Ashden Award winner Guru Systems has used

smart technology to capture and analyse heat network data so that failures can be addressed, reducing energy use by up to 50%. Households on heat networks have not received the same support on their energy bills as those with individual heating, so help to improve efficiency is overdue.”

Young talent

While Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 49,000 unfilled positions in construction, a survey of 2,000 18-29-year-olds in the UK by construction data platform NBS revealed that 56% consider construction an attractive career. So why are more not choosing it as a profession?

The survey showed only 28% are aware of the technology now associated with the sector, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and drone piloting. Awareness is also low about positions that focus on sustainability and tackling issues such as climate change. And 34% of young people said that ‘none or very little information’ was given to them about starting a career in construction when they were last in education.

In response, NBS is calling for industry co-operation to invest in the future generation of construction professionals through face-to-face workshops with sixth-form pupils on the verge of picking a career path.

Russell Haworth, CEO of NBS and UK CEO of Byggfakta Group UK, said: “This is a significant opportunity for the construction sector to solve its talent shortage.

“There’s an open and untapped talent pool available, with hundreds of thousands of young people open to construction as a career.

“We also need to be loud and proud on the continued digitisation of the sector. Digital adoption is no longer a buzzword – it’s here and it’s happening, and for ambitious young minds it represents a doorway to a varied and skilled career path.”

For more visit thenbs.com

Warranty guidance update

Since February, low-rise developments seeking structural warranty cover are required to meet new and updated guidance on parapet walls, balconies and basements. The new 2023 edition of the Technical Manual, published by warranty provider Premier Guarantee, adds new sections on these and further guidance covering the increasing use of external wall

EVs for rent

One of the major issues for EV drivers currently is the charging network infrastructure in the UK. Modular and off-site building business Algeco has partnered with Smart Green Chargers to offer customers a range of EV chargers for hire, as well as initiating

insulation brick slips. Where parts of a structure are below external ground level, the developer will be required to submit details of waterproofing and design specification, including a site investigation report, to Premier Guarantee well in advance of the works starting.

Download the manual at bit.ly/premierguarantee

Sprinklers in care homes

a programme to install EV chargers at its 22 sites around the country.

The UK has the second largest plug-in car market in Europe, with 368,617 sales in 2022.

This is expected to increase as the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel vehicle sales approaches.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) consultation on proposed changes to Approved Document B (ADB) of the Building Regulations closes on 17 March 2023. The government is proposing several new updates to ADB, including recommendations to mandate sprinklers in care homes, regardless of height. Take part at bit.ly/DLUHC_ sprinklers

Who’s responsible?

At the end of January, Housing Secretary Michael Gove gave developers a six-week deadline to sign up to remediate homes that are 11m or above that have been built in the past 30 years (making mid-March the deadline). Further legislation creates a Responsible Actors Scheme preventing developers from operating and gaining building control approval if they fail to sign up.

The contract is the legal document underpinning the cladding pledge released last year to repair fire safety defects. The government targeted 60 major housebuilders, although so far only 49 have signed the pledge.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has called on the government to honour its promise to ask foreign builders and cladding providers to pay for repairs too. However, SME housebuilders claim the

Wales consultations

The Welsh government has launched a consultation on proposals to amend the statutory guidance (Approved Document J) supporting Part J of the Building Regulations to require that carbon monoxide (CO) alarms are fitted alongside the installation of flued fixed combustion appliances of any fuel type in all residential dwellings.

In addition, it is seeking views on proposals to amend building regulations to require all new build houses to be

government’s new contract forcing all developers to pay £2bn or more to fix unsafe properties is unfair. National Federation of Builders’ (NFB) Richard Beresford said it was tantamount to Hobson’s Choice for innocent builders. The NFB is lobbying for exemptions to the forthcoming building safety levy to exclude developers building fewer than 40 homes. It also wants the government to consult with other parties such as material manufacturers, building control professionals and architects before the levy goes live. The trade body believes the levy is excessive, given the introduction of the residential property developer tax in April charging 4% from developers with profits of more than £25m.

Read more at bit.ly/gov_ sixweeks

HOME AND AWAY

More than 20,000 new homes are expected to be built next to London transport hubs in the next decade on land owned by Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail. Network Rail and TfL are among the largest landowners in Greater London, with brownfield sites across the capital and surrounding counties being used for development.

FIS GUIDE

The Sector Guide – Competency Management Plans has been launched by the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS). The guide addresses the regulatory regime as part of the longawaited Building Safety Act, which sets out clear duties and responsibilities for those who commission, design, construct and refurbish higher-risk buildings, as well as those responsible for ensuring buildings are safely managed when occupied. Download at thefis.org/skills-hub/ competency

CIC RECOGNITION

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has awarded HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Inclusive Environments Recognition for its application of the CIC’s Essential Principles for creating accessible and inclusive environments at its Teville Gate House project in Worthing, West Sussex.

CREATING A BUZZ

Spread the word about entering STEM project(s) in the Big Bang Competition and support the next generation of budding building engineers. Enter the competition at bit.ly/yt_bigbangcomp

GET INVOLVED

equipped with gigabit broadband capability.

See the consultation on broadband at bit.ly/govwales_ newbuild and on CO alarms at bit.ly/govwales_CO

Building Engineer prides itself on presenting high-quality technical information and industry insight, and would like to showcase the expertise of the members themselves. Do you have specialist knowledge of an area that’s not being covered, or insight in an area that is? Would you be willing to submit a feature or be interviewed?

If so, e-mail the editor at cabe@redactive.co.uk

The Health & Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) L8 Legionnaires’

Disease: The Control of Legionella Bacteria in Water Systems states that Legionella risk assessments should be reviewed regularly and whenever there is a change of circumstances that could affect the risk. BS 8580-1:2019 Water Quality: Risk Assessments for Legionella Control gives guidance on risk assessment review and the changes that may trigger the need to review the current assessment.

Risk assessments should identify potential hazards, including pathogenic organisms such as Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas

aeruginosa. They should also cover scalding, chemical contamination and disruption to the water supply, and consider all foreseeable events that may arise during the supply, storage, delivery, maintenance and use of the water.

Risk assessment can mean different levels of intervention, from a desktop review to a full invasive survey of the installation, depending on the complexity of the system and its use.

However, a Legionella risk assessment alone is not sufficient (according to BS 8580-2:2022) and should be accompanied by clinical risk assessments identifying the vulnerability of building occupants and the pathways by which

Tried and tested

water may come into contact with potential contamination, especially in healthcare facilities.

A Legionella assessment should be carried out by a suitably competent person, and the assessor should be able to demonstrate impartiality and independence from remedial or control tasks identified within the assessment.

Risk assessment frequency

The two-year frequency for risk assessments was removed from the HSE’s ACoP L8 in 2013. One reason is the acknowledgement that some water systems are inherently very low risk and do not require elaborate controls. However, there is no reason to believe that things should be significantly different for water systems representing a medium to high risk. What is critical in all cases is that a risk assessment completed at twoyearly intervals is not simply placed on the shelf during the period in between. The assessment of risk is not an isolated exercise, but an ongoing process, and should evolve alongside the building’s usage.

According to the HSE’s ACoP L8, the assessment should be reviewed whenever there is a reason to suspect it is no longer valid. This includes, but is not limited to, the following circumstances: changes to the water system or its use changes to the use of the building in which the water system is installed the availability of new information about risks or control measures the results of checks indicating that control measures are no longer effective changes to key personnel; and a case of Legionnaires’ disease or legionellosis associated with the system.

Other important factors to consider include: the management of water source/quality the key risks identified and how these are changing over time whether key risks are being managed so far as is reasonably practical resources and how they are prioritised; and escalation of risk management issues. When dealing with water hygiene issues on premises, frequent reviews and updates to the risk assessment are key to keeping water systems safe.

Water Hygiene Centre recommends that for rapidly changing environments, the risk assessment matrix should be reviewed no less than every three months.

For more information visit waterhygienecentre.com

There is a duty on those in charge of premises to manage the risks associated with water systems. Roy Sullivan, Senior Consultant at Water Hygiene Centre, outlines what’s required from a Legionella risk assessment

The assessment of risk in water systems is not an isolated exercise but an ongoing process

CROSS UK Report 1052

Collaborative reporting for safer structures. Report 1052: Fire spread through balconies

Highlighting that the extensive use of combustible materials in the construction of balconies can result in fire spread over the external wall, the report is featured because members expressed concerns about Denmark’s Ørsted Gardens project featured on last month’s Building Engineer cover

This report’s concern is two-fold: the extent of the use of combustible materials in the construction of the balconies and the inability of the balcony construction to sufficiently limit the spread of fire. The reporter drew the conclusion from a (recent) event that the fire spread over the external wall and was inadequately resisted. This is judged by the reporter as deficient performance, even for such a building, which is below 18m in height. This is because the compartment boundary was bypassed at an early stage, undermining the concept of compartmentation upon which a stay-put approach was in place.

Two phenomena are presented that indicated the breach of compartmentation, and two possible causes: one is the lateral spread of fire, horizontally over the elevation, between balconies of different flats, involving an external volume beyond the compartment of origin. The potential role of dividing screens in preventing or contributing to fire spread and the continuity of balconies in enabling fire spread should both be explored. The presence of combustible materials in the construction of the balcony is referred to by the reporter as the cause of this type of spread; specifically, the presence of timber and plastic netting below the decking; and the second phenomenon is the vertical spread of fire, through the

involvement of the balcony in the flat above the compartment of origin. This is attributed to the use of perforated decking in the soffit, which allowed exposure to flames and subsequent involvement of combustible materials in the balcony above, leading to rapid vertical fire spread.

In both cases, potential solutions that involve any kind of treatment for the timber elements should be considered carefully, accounting for the effects of weathering and ageing, along with their ability to resist large fire exposures at any point in their service life.

Additionally, the form and orientation of any timber used on the building should be considered as these are aspects that can affect its burning behaviour. Reaction to fire classifications should be checked to ensure that they are based on a relevant test and are implemented while considering the form of the element and any surrounding materials.

The reporter considers that for the use of combustible materials in balconies, the possibility of fire spread and the potential undermining of a stay-put strategy should be taken into account. The building’s fire strategy is provided to address the case of a fire in a single flat unit, which also usually forms a compartment. If there is external fire spread at a rate so rapid that it can compromise the effectiveness of active fire safety systems, such as smoke control or suppression systems – even in buildings under 18m in height – then it is the opinion of the reporter that it could be questioned whether requirement B4 of the Building Regulations 2010 is still satisfied.

Issues related to this report are expected to be included in ongoing government-issued research on Fire Safety: Balconies, Spandrels, and

Glazing (CPD 004/0120/205). This is an indication that the state of knowledge in fire engineering is still evolving to cater for these new developments in construction practices.

Comments

The panel agrees that this issue requires attention, while appreciating the fact that the government has commissioned research as part of the review of Approved Document B – yet it is key that this research is ongoing. Issues regarding the fire safety of balconies have previously been the topic of a Building Research Establishment (BRE) report (bit.ly/BRE_balconies).

As the reporter mentioned, it is generally assumed that the risk of fire spread is a combination of the combustibility of the materials that the balcony is made from and any combustible materials that are placed on them. Different professionals and organisations have been following different approaches to this issue in anticipation of the research findings, which is an indication that there are no definitive solutions. The form and orientation of timber panelling should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis, with cognisance of how the reaction to fire classification

has been obtained by fire testing, and whether that classification is considered appropriate for the end use. For existing buildings, PAS 9980 includes the assessment of the risk of balconies and, eventually, it is up to the competent designer to choose a solution that they feel comfortably satisfies the functional requirements of the Building Regulations.

CROSS has published a Safety Alert (bit.ly/CROSSUK_balconies) regarding issues associated with balconies and a Safety Report (bit.ly/CROSSUK_deck) about deck board in common access balconies. It should be noted that in December the guidance in England was updated to apply to balconies on residential buildings with a floor above 11m.

CROSS UK Report 1043

Collaborative reporting for safer structures. Report 1043: Do planning applications hinder safety improvements?

An application to a Local Planning Authority (LPA) to make safe the external fire escape has been submitted and the authority insisted on a full and formal planning application. The reporter is of the mind that this process is likely to take months, and this is not appropriate for a case that needs immediate safety improvements.

The reporter is of the opinion that this is an “unthinking application of planning rules”, where safety is treated purely as a legal issue and not an engineering matter. They call for a better understanding between the engineering profession and the legal profession in order to align their prioritisation of safety and better serve the public.

Comments

It is the panel’s opinion that, ideally, a fire escape

should never have got to the point of needing to be rebuilt, either because of degradation due to the lack of oversight and maintenance or due to deficiencies in the original solution.

Planning laws are in place to prevent people from doing unacceptable things to buildings that could adversely affect the occupants and the neighbourhood. While fire safety is important, there may exist numerous other issues that cannot be overridden. It is part of the duties of the Local Authority (LA) to prioritise these issues. If planning requirements mean that there is a delay in doing the work, then the owner needs to put in place appropriate temporary measures, following procedures that are already in place.

It is the responsibility of the Responsible Person (under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005) (FSO) to ensure there is a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment (FRA), and a record (where required) of the risks and the associated measures, including adequate means of escape. A fire risk assessment is a ‘live’ process, reflecting the premises as it is, with any issues being identified as soon as possible. If the means of escape stair is no longer available, then this must be recorded and accommodated in the FRA, with adequate measures instigated immediately.

If the reporter has concerns that have not been addressed, then they should contact the local Fire and Rescue Authority/Service, which is (in general) the enforcer of the FSO and the appropriate body to check if a breach of the FSO, which places relevant persons at risk of death or serious injury in the event of a fire, may have been committed.

To subscribe to the CROSS UK newsletter (structural and fire safety concerns), visit cross-safety.org/uk/user/register

A potential issue about the reconstruction of a structurally inadequate external fire escape from a building

“If planning requirements mean that there is a delay in doing the work, then the owner needs to put in place appropriate temporary measures”

Everything has a place

couple of small shelves with two candles. Unlike all my friends, there were no posters on my walls or photos of loved ones. Intuitively I knew I got easily distracted. When I moved out, my lovely flat was a larger version of my bedroom at home.

Once I was married with children, I found that life comes with lots and lots of stuff. Most of it is not mine. When I am downstairs at home, I find it hard to relax. All the things I see are bits of visual information my brain somehow has to process. It is overstimulating, distracting and exhausting.

I am now carefully thinking about how I can regain control. I am not saying open plan and neurodiversity don’t go together, but we need to be mindful that too much open plan might be overwhelming for some of us. The more the architecture does for you, the less you have to rely on your own organisational skills.

Designing for neurodiversity

I have found the following to be useful questions to ask when you are designing a space for neurodiversity: is a space to retreat needed?

how much will the occupant want to see? Are there options for storage?

everything should have a place. Think of a day in the life of the person or people living there. Where do they need storage and space?

could they be sensitive to light? Think of the house’s orientation and how you mitigate the ingress of direct sunlight at different times of the day

could they be sensitive to noise? Think of acoustics and providing the right noise insulation for different functions. For example, people working from home are likely to work downstairs, so the layout needs to accommodate not working within earshot of kitchen appliances. Materials and surfaces also need to be considered, such as squeaking noises from furniture moving around on hard floors. Is additional acoustic insulation on walls and floors needed?

could they be sensitive to smell?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is one of many conditions that fall within the spectrum of neurodiversity. As a spectrum, it means there are no hard and fast rules about who experiences exactly what symptoms and when. ADHD primarily affects executive functions. This is the part of the brain that deals with managing yourself: time management, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation,

planning, organisation, and impulse and emotional control. Many people with neurodivergent conditions process everyday sensory information such as sounds, sights and smells differently.

The way in which we design our homes could be making life harder for people with ADHD, from architectural interventions and layout to decoration and storage. For example, during my childhood I had a sparse bedroom: it contained my bed, a desk with nothing on it and a

Kitchens and open-plan living may not be the best option

could they be sensitive to flooring textures?

should you choose flooring and other finishes that don’t have a pattern?

Understanding the challenges faced by people with ADHD and other conditions allows us to better create an inclusive built environment, whether that’s a family home or a public space.

For more, visit xularchitecture.co.uk

XUL Director Maia Lemlij’s ADHD diagnosis gives her a different view of designing buildings to accommodate neurodiversity

The UK has seen fewer workers return to the office full-time than in any other European nation. The reasons for this can vary, from employers wanting to make the most of lower overheads by downsizing offices, to workers being reluctant to return to daily commutes and feeling more productive surrounded by home comforts. For those who have returned to the office after lockdown working, there’s one element that has been thrown into sharp relief – noise.

A poll of 2,000 UK office workers showed that only 8% worked in a quiet office and only a quarter worked in a space well designed for their job. The sounds most likely to stop people from working effectively were colleagues talking to each other (38%); other people on calls (34%); colleagues eating (21%); and co-workers singing or humming (19%).

Four in ten office workers said poor acoustics interrupted their concentration; a third said their mood was negatively affected, while a quarter reported stress induced by high noise levels. Workers reported snapping at colleagues (17%) and at their bosses (12%), raising grievances (16%) and leaving passive-aggressive notes (11%) due to noise stress. One in ten had even resorted to physical violence (one in five of the gen Z demographic) to stop the noise issues. Most had tried to solve the issue by working from home (21%), moving desks (17%) or wearing headphones (23%).

Health issues

High levels of excessive noise can cause permanent health damage. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that excess noise is harmful to health. When asked, only a third of UK workers associated excessive noise with hearing loss and high blood pressure, and just one in seven understood that it could lead to diabetes, stroke, heart disease and heart attacks. 15% of UK office workers said that their workplaces had damaged their hearing. A fifth said it led to disturbed sleep and a quarter reported stress due to noise levels in their office.

You’d expect bosses to take things seriously and most agreed that companies had made some adjustments to the office environment, with only a third saying that nothing had been done. Common adaptations included installing physical barriers (26%) and soundproofing (21%), training for noisy people (25%) and implementing quiet zones (25%). Other adjustments included moving a loud team (18%). One in seven workers said their boss had fired someone for being too noisy.

Suffering in silence

Interestingly, the same survey found that women working in noisy offices are more likely than male colleagues to resort to home working instead of reporting disruptive behaviour. Nearly a quarter (24%) of female office workers across the UK chose to work from home to escape excessive workplace noise, compared to just over a fifth (21%) of men. 43% of women said they had difficulty concentrating in high-volume workplaces compared with 32% of men, though this could

Noise annoys

Oscar Acoustics’ study says noisy offices lower productivity, especially for women, and that employers should prioritise employee wellbeing

be down to men not feeling comfortable making that admission.

Female office workers were also found to be far less likely to make a formal complaint about a noisy colleague, with just 11% confirming they had done so previously compared to nearly a fifth (19%) of men.

Instead, nearly a quarter (23%) of women said they have previously felt compelled to either begin

“With the take up of hybrid working, we’re seeing the impact noise can have on staff and productivity, creating unwanted distractions”

60% of office workers were unable to concentrate and delivered poor-quality work due to loud workspaces only 20% thought their bosses had done enough to combat the issue one in 5 under-30s had resorted to physical violence due to the disturbance

work late or come in early to catch up on work due to being distracted by workplace noise. By comparison, less than a fifth of men (19%) had done the same. The research also found that women were generally more prone to suffering the negative side effects of workplace noise pollution, interruptions by colleagues and distracting co-workers. Some 29% of female office workers said excessive noise in the workplace had caused them stress, while less than a quarter (24%) of men said the same. Both men and women cited ‘colleagues talking to each other’, ‘colleagues talking on the phone or video calls’ and ‘eating noises’ as among their top audible annoyances.

The study comes as businesses struggle to encourage staff back into the office, with occupancy rates plateauing. The report forms part of a white paper published by Oscar Acoustics, which

aims to drive awareness of the benefits of ensuring workplaces are designed with acoustics in mind.

Ben Hancock, Managing Director at Oscar Acoustics, said: “Employers are facing real challenges around staffing and needing to achieve the same results with fewer people. With the take up of hybrid working, we’re seeing the impact [noise] can have on staff and productivity, creating unwanted distractions that reduce the quality of work. We need to take a long hard look at the suitability of our offices and understand that excessive noise is one of the main reasons why people aren’t returning. Without better acoustic management, this reluctance will continue, affecting company profits and staff morale.”

Download Oscar Acoustics’ white paper Noise Annoys at bit.ly/OA_whitepaper

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), of the 5,583 suicides registered in England and Wales in 2021, 74% were men. Although mental health problems are extremely common (one in four people will experience a mental health problem each year in England), there is still a stigma. For men, this prevents them both from addressing it or seeking professional help. Here’s what can be done: know the facts. Educate yourself (from reputable sources) about mental illness, symptoms and treatments. Being informed is the first step in getting the proper treatment don’t buy into the stigma. You may believe that mental illness is a sign of weakness and that you or the person struggling should be able to control it without help. The truth is that seeking counselling, education, being kind to yourself and others, and searching for support shows real strength and is the right way to tackle it choose your words carefully. The way we speak can affect the attitudes of others. For example, using the phrase ‘man up’ draws connotations with hyper-masculinity, which can be pretty detrimental by inferring it is unmasculine to ask for help pass on facts and positive attitudes. Being on the lookout for opportunities to educate others is a great way to break down the negativity surrounding

men’s mental health. Remember to help people understand that mental illness is a disorder that can be treated, just as you would treat any other medical issue; and seek help and encourage others to do the same. If you had broken your arm, you’d see a doctor – and this is no different. Do not be afraid to ask for help, especially if you are experiencing drastic changes in mood, weight changes, physical symptoms such as headaches and stomach issues, have had a drop in motivation and work performance or are having a bout of prolonged sadness, hopelessness or anhedonia (a loss of pleasure and pulling away from things that used to provide enjoyment).

There are many options for support –for example, talking to your friends and family, going to a GP, or attending therapy sessions. There is no wrong order in which to try things, and different things work for different people. It can take time and may not be straightforward. But it is important to remember that you are not alone and deserve support.

Supporting Minds is a counselling service providing a range of professionally recognised training and therapy services.

The CABE Benevolent Fund partners with Anxiety UK to offer free independent assistance to members struggling with their mental health.

Visit: cbuilde.com/page/cabe_ benevolent_fund

Jenine Butroid, Founder and CEO of Supporting Minds, believes that despite more people challenging the stigma of mental ill health, men are still less willing to ask for help

Speaking up

“There is no wrong order in which to try things, and different things work for different people”

INDUSTRY OPINION

The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) is the UK’s leading trade body within the safety industry. BSIF members include manufacturers, distributors, test houses, certification bodies, safety professionals and service providers. It provides support and guidance on a wide range of occupational safety issues.

The UK has always had a reputation for stringent product safety standards, but with constant innovation and the rise of e-commerce, many markets have become increasingly hard to regulate.

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) is a case in point. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how quickly substandard and potentially dangerous products can find their way onto the market, with reports suggesting billions of pounds of public money were ultimately wasted on unusable PPE. Unfortunately, unacceptable products have been finding their way into UK marketplaces way before Covid-19. This is illustrated by the British Safety Industry Federation’s (BSIF) latest analysis.

As well as auditing its membership annually to verify compliance and competence, BSIF tests a selection of PPE from non-BSIF members. Between December 2021 and December 2022, a total of 118 non-member products were tested. Only 15 (13%) of these products passed the test, with the results for five of the products still pending. This means 98 products (83%) failed to meet the test’s criteria, many of which are still available and being sold to unsuspecting users.

These findings are in contrast with products supplied by BSIF Registered Safety Suppliers,

118 non-member ppe products were tested

83% failed to meet the bsif test’s criteria

which are committed to only selling certified PPE and trading honestly and ethically.

What’s changing?

2023 will see the introduction of a new post-EU Product Safety Framework, which will help to strengthen the rules around the sale of products including PPE. Timings for publication of the framework are still to be confirmed, but there will be a strong focus on improving the safety and compliance of goods sold by third-party sellers on online marketplaces. We expect to see stricter responsibilities for online vendors and harsher penalties for those that fail to comply. At the same time, the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) agenda is having a growing impact. Companies looking to strengthen their ESG performance are scrutinising the credentials of their suppliers and choosing only to work with responsible companies. When it comes to buying PPE and safety equipment, many buyers now realise that specifying the BSIF’s Registered Safety Supplier Scheme is the easiest way to ensure they are dealing with suppliers that are compliant, competent and trustworthy.

It’s therefore no surprise that BSIF saw a significant number of public and private sector organisations mandate the Registered Safety Supplier Scheme for their supply chains in 2022. As the focus on product safety sharpens this year, we expect that number to increase.

For more, visit: bsif.co.uk For a full list of Registered Safety Suppliers, visit: registeredsafetysupplierscheme.co.uk

BSIF CEO Alan Murray explains why 2023 will see a greater focus on product safety, including increased scrutiny of goods sold by third-party sellers on online marketplaces

“2023 will see the introduction of a new post-EU Product Safety Framework”

Setting the standard The Industry

In the wake of the Building Control Inspector Competency Framework consultation, CABE undertook a survey of members to get a snapshot of the sector in England and Wales

In November 2022, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released the Building Control Inspector Competency Framework consultation. Its outcomes will affect all building control professionals working in English local authorities, approved inspectors and building control approvers.

From October 2023, building control professionals will need to prove their competence before applying for registration with the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR). As 17% of CABE’s members work in building control, CABE undertook a survey to better understand their thoughts and concerns. More than 400 members took part. 90% of the respondents are currently working in the building control profession (with 36% of those working in local authority building control and 53% working as approved inspectors). The results, which informed CABE’s response to the consultation, have been shared with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the BSR at HSE.

With such changes in the sector, it was unsurprising that the survey showed building control professionals are concerned about the future, with 38% considering or planning to leave the sector in the next three years. Respondents scored 45 out of 50 for job fulfilment but were markedly less optimistic about the future, while 82% felt resourcing for building control functions had declined. 41% expressed concern that the construction industry’s understanding of how to comply with building regulations has been deteriorating, which is making the job harder.

That said, 55% are in support of the core competencies outlined in the consultation, along with the establishment of the four different levels – awareness, appreciation, understand and comprehensive – to distinguish the levels of experience and knowledge. While it is clear that many building control professionals remain highly committed to delivering the best possible service, retention over the next three years must be a cause for concern, with 53% definitely intending to stay in building control and 66% planning to register as a building inspector by April 2024.

Building Inspector Competence Framework

66% of respondents agree that the detailed competencies at the four varying levels is the right approach

Over the past three years:

39% believe building control effectiveness has improved compliance outcomes, although 30% believe that it has deteriorated

55% agree that the detailed competencies for each of the nine main categories are comprehensive and appropriate

42% believe the construction industry’s understanding of how to comply with building regulations has deteriorated over

82% believe that resourcing for building control functions has declined

Building Control Competence Framework

Support for the primary subject areas of the Framework

Support for the four classes of registration

69%

class 1 – building inspector (associate/ assistant)

77% class 3 – building inspector (complex/ hrbs)

CABE Courses supporting building control

Certificate in Building Control: bit.ly/cbuilde_certificate Plan Interpretation Workshop: bit.ly/cbuilde_plan

Future Homes Part L: bit.ly/cbuilde_sustainability

71% class 2 – building inspector (standard)

64% class 4 – building inspector (manager)

Basic Structural Design for Non-Structural Engineers: bit.ly/cbuilde_basic Webinar: Ironmongery for Fire and Escape Doors: bit.ly/cbuilde_iron Webinar: Review of the Importance of Approved Document O: bit.ly/cbuilde_doc

Awaab Ishak died of a severe respiratory condition eight days after his second birthday in 2020. The verdict –delivered at the inquest into his death by Joanne Kearsley, Senior Coroner for North Manchester, last November – sent shock waves across the UK’s social housing sector.

The toddler had died because of black mould in the bathroom and kitchen. His parents had repeatedly complained to their landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. “Action to treat and prevent the mould was not taken,” Kearsley said. “His respiratory condition led to respiratory arrest.”

The coroner added that the cause of any damp or moisture was “more likely than not due to normal daily living activities”, with “no evidence that the ways of living by the family were in any way excessive”. The boy’s death, she continued, “will and should be a defining moment for the housing sector in terms of increasing knowledge, increasing awareness and a deepening of understanding surrounding the issue of damp and mould”.

Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Secretary Michael Gove called the death “an unacceptable tragedy” and launched an urgent review of guidance to landlords about health risks from damp and mould. He also wrote to all local authority chief executives, council leaders and providers of social housing with statutory directions to tackle mould and damp. As one observer comments, Gove’s move “created terror in the eyes of housing association and council managers”.

His intervention was quickly followed by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) demanding social housing landlords submit evidence about the extent of damp and mould in their tenants’ homes and how they are tackling it. Its initial

findings, published in February, revealed 0.2% of social homes in England – equating to around 8,000 – have the most serious damp and mould and would fail the Decent Homes Standard. Between 1%-2% of social homes – equating to between 40,000 and 80,000 – are estimated to have serious damp and mould, while a further 3%-4% – equating to between 120,000 and 160,000 – have a notable problem.

The RSH noted that while the vast majority of tenants are “largely free from damp and mould”, those living with them face serious risks to their health and wellbeing. Landlords must “identify and address these issues promptly and effectively”, with the RSH pledging to clamp down where appropriate.

Team effort

For Property Care Association (PCA) CEO Steve Hodgson, the coroner’s findings, Gove’s intervention and subsequent pressure from the RSH are “game-changers” for landlords. His members are reporting a huge rise in problems cited by landlords, while the PCA has received a “100% uplift ” in enquiries for training.

“They have had to think and act very quickly. Who would want to be in the same position as Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, especially when the court of public opinion is very much against them?” he says. “They have been asked to take action on a very tight timescale.”

A range of factors are behind the rise in mould and damp, chief among them rising fuel costs, higher levels of occupation and the drive to make homes more energy efficient.

Professor Andrew Geens, who recently retired as head of CIBSE Certification, says the Rochdale case has raised awareness at the same time as the recent fuel price rises – which, as he

Social responsibility

between 40,000 and 80,000 social homes are estimated to have serious damp and mould

The death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to chronic exposure to mould at his housing association home left landlords and building managers reeling. Huw Morris looks at the implications

explains, “will see more properties experiencing condensation-related problems”.

The issue will only get worse. According to the Child Poverty Action Group, more than half of households in the UK (15 million) either are or will be in fuel poverty in the first months of 2023. This is measured as households spending more than 10% of their income on fuel. That issue is not confined to social housing. In 2020, 2.2 million homes in England had at least one hazard in the highest risk category for public health and 941,000 had serious damp, according to the English Housing Survey.

What the law says

Social landlords had been warned for some time.

The Housing Ombudsman Service’s 2021 report on damp and mould called on them not to blame tenants. Yet formal complaints about damp, mould and leaks are expected to reach 5,300 for the year to March, up from below 2,000 in 2020-21. Ombudsman Richard Blakeway says less than half of landlords are estimated to have introduced policies to tackle the problem, and some are still blaming tenants’ laundry, cooking and other “lifestyle” issues for mould. Some, he says, have removed words such as “lifestyle” from their

What should landlords do?

The Chartered Institute of Housing acknowledges it has been contacted by “numerous landlords” following the Rochdale inquest. It suggests five key actions as a template for tackling reports of damp and mould in the future: urgently review records to identify reports of damp and mould and see what action has been taken seek urgent access to all homes with reports of damp and mould that have not been inspected to find out whether there is a serious hazard

present and the work required. If a tenant does not allow access, then landlords may need to seek an injunction as the only way they can ensure compliance prepare a schedule of work and take steps to remedy the problem without delay. This should be given to the tenant with a timescale use the Housing Ombudsman report Spotlight on: Damp and mould as a checklist for good practice; and landlords should consider whether their policies and procedures are fit for purpose, review their contractors’ performance and consider whether staff need to refresh their training.

policies and replaced them with euphemisms such as “internal environmental factors”.

Hodgson says the housing ombudsman “has been very forthright that we should not blame tenants for mould and damp”, while the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 “has put more power in tenants’ hands”. He notes: “The pressure has been building for a while, but the dam has now broken.”

The Rochdale inquest highlighted the importance of landlords complying with obligations under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, as well as Section 9A of the same law as inserted by the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. The landlord’s breach of Section 9A, which the coroner said led to Awaab’s death and which came into force for existing tenancies in March 2020, ensures a home “is fit for human habitation at the time the lease is granted … and will remain fit for human habitation during the term of the lease”.

On mould, a landlord will “usually” be responsible if it is caused by a structural defect such as rising damp. A tenant will “usually” be responsible if the mould has been caused by failing to ventilate or heat the property. Expert evidence may be needed to confirm the most likely cause and how to solve the problem.

Expert view

Professor Geens has run courses on tackling mould and damp for the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Building Services Research and Information Association, and is also an external examiner for the PCA. He advises that building engineers should keep the BSI’s Code of practice for control of condensation in buildings to hand as their standard document, a new version of which was published in 2021. The issue is down to “a complicated equation of contributory factors”, and often condensation is part of the problem.

“There is only a certain amount of moisture air can carry at any given temperature. It’s better

Approved Document F

Approved Document F, which covers ventilation in homes, applies to all new build and modified properties. This states that ventilation is the removal of “stale” air from a building and replacement with fresh outside air.

The document also states that ventilation is required for one or more of the following:

provision of outside air for breathing dilution and removal of airborne pollutants including odours control of excess humidity from water vapour in indoor air; and

provision of air for fuel-burning

not to get moisture in the air in the first place, but that’s unavoidable as we breathe out vapour and a lot of household activities produce it. To avoid condensation, you either have to keep the temperature high enough for the air to carry the moisture or ventilate the space to get rid of the moisture and replace it with fresher air. But if you ventilate more, that drops the temperature. It’s a fine balance getting that right.”

While many landlords include advice on managing condensation in their information packs for tenants moving into a home, this is not universal. He notes that if you don’t know you are making the situation worse, then there’s no expectation on you not to do it.

Professor Geens has run numerous professional training courses, but “the successful management

appliances as covered under Part J of the Building Regulations. However, Approved Document F is not enforced to the same extent as other Building Regulations, says the Property Care Association (PCA). Its poll during a recent webinar on ventilation found nearly three-quarters of delegates believed less than a third of installs in new builds complied with Building Regulations.

In short, the PCA argues if the picture is much worse in existing buildings and the industry is struggling to get it right in new builds, then questions must be asked.

The Rochdale case is prompting calls for the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) role to be extended, and the watchdog has recently consulted on a proposed competency framework for building control inspectors. “If it’s in an industrial workplace and you are made ill by that workplace, then the HSE will get involved,” says PCA CEO Steve Hodgson. “Why should it be different if a tenant is made ill by their home and it’s a landlord or company that provides that home as part of their business?

“Why on earth should a regulator not be involved?”

of a property is a team effort between the landlord and the tenant”. That is a complicated mix, but knowledge and awareness are top of the list for both sides.

“There will be cases where a landlord has ignored what they should be doing, the property is in poor condition and it’s very much on the landlord’s side that something needs to be done.

“Equally, you can have a very well-designed and maintained property and the tenant is not keeping their part of the bargain.

“It’s not unusual for three flats in the same building to not have a problem while a fourth one does. In that situation, it’s likely but not definite that the tenant is doing something different to the other three that don’t have a problem. But you can get a building where many of the flats have a problem, which suggests that’s down to the landlord,” he says.

There are things tenants can do to mitigate the risk, such as wiping things down, drying surfaces after a shower, opening windows while cooking and not drying clothes inside.

But the landlord can make sure the building is well insulated and has an efficient heating system so that it’s affordable. He also notes that, when decorating, they should use finishes in wet areas that are not absorbent and therefore easy to keep dry and free of mould.

“The ideal situation is where the landlord is providing a suitable property that can be heated affordably and the finishes lend to keeping everything clean and dry. But if it becomes a lot

more expensive to maintain the heating, that knocks the equation out of balance.

“You then have a condensation risk, and there are plenty of headlines about people not being able to afford to heat their homes because of rising fuel prices.

“Even if all landlords were doing a good job, something like people’s ability to meet the background temperature in a property that avoids condensation risk has been knocked sideways.”

Social housing landlords will have to investigate and fix damp and mould in their properties within strict new time limits under amendments tabled by the government to the Social Housing Regulation Bill to introduce ‘Awaab’s Law’. A consultation will be launched later this year to set the timeframes within which landlords must act to investigate hazards and make repairs. The new rules will form part of the tenancy agreement, sotenants can hold landlords to account by law if they fail to provide a decent home.

Professor Geens points out that it is in no one’s interests to allow a building to decay and succumb to mould. “While there will be cases where landlords have not done their best to keep their properties free from mould, normally this is a win-win situation where taking the correct actions not only protects their tenants but also their assets. Damp conditions even without mould are detrimental to the structure and the internal decoration of the property.”

Building standards have been developed around the world to varying degrees for centuries, the initial intention being to ensure that buildings provided socially acceptable levels of health, safety and welfare for building occupants and the surrounding community. As society has continued to modernise and grow, standards incrementally broadened in scope to cover an array of technical areas. Since the latter half of the 20th century, protection of the environment has become an additional policy objective, with rapid population growth, rising energy needs, climate change and the depletion of natural resources emerging as complex challenges on a global scale.

Since the mid-1980s, performancebased building standards have been introduced in an increasing number of developed countries around the world, complementing policies that focus on deregulation and the promotion of business growth. Prior to this, prescriptive standards (such as setting out how a building must be built or the materials used) have generally been easy to follow. In contrast, the performance approach does not specify how requirements expressed in functional terms should be met, which allows significant flexibility when it comes to potential compliance solutions. A few hundred pages of prescriptive building standards have become many thousands of pages of primary (such as approved documents or building codes) and secondary (such as British Standards or ISO standards) performance-based guidance, which continues to expand and become increasingly expensive to access. A strong reliance on expert interpretation has led to disciplinary knowledge being stretched beyond its limits, and to performance-based standards frameworks being described as broken and not fit for purpose.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, professional competence issues have become prevalent internationally. Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, England has effectively followed New Zealand’s modern example of practitioner licensing. Despite this approach, both New Zealand and Japan (whose licensing system has existed since 1950) have experienced serious and widespread building performance problems resulting from poor design and construction work. The problems in New Zealand and Japan have only arisen since the introduction of a performancebased approach to building standards development in those countries in 1992 and 2000 respectively. This suggests that,

Come together

Dr Mark Key, author of Building Regulations, Codes and Standards: A guide for safe, sustainable and healthy development, explains why and how global building standards need to find common ground

while important, professional competence may not be the main underlying cause of building failures around the world.

Global view

In September 2015, the 193 member states of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all to be achieved by 2030. Our built environment has a role to play in achieving all 17 SDGs, with a particular emphasis on good health and wellbeing, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action and life on land.

Currently, the world’s population is approaching eight billion, with the UN predicting that it could reach more than 11 billion by 2100. Correlated with this continuing population boom, by 2060 the global building stock floor area is expected to double – a rate of development that is equivalent to constructing the current building stock floor area of Japan every year.

Construction accounts for 36% of final energy use and 39% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, 11% of which result from manufacturing building materials and products. It is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials and generates 40% of all solid waste in developed countries. While the natural world continues to shrink, the anthropogenic mass (the mass of all human-made materials created since the Industrial Revolution) has grown to a point where it far surpasses the Earth’s living biomass (the estimated nine million biological species on the planet). The viability of an expanding built environment is dependent on the health of the planet. Unfortunately, the countries that signed up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 are not on track to meet the SDGs – in fact, from a built environment perspective, an increase in CO2-intensive natural resource and energy use is still being recorded year-on-year.

Building standards are regularly watered down to stimulate economic activity and are applied inconsistently on

a country-by-country basis. In some large countries, such as Australia, Canada and the US, there is no central government oversight of the application of standards, which are administered at a local level – over 60% of counties, cities and towns across the US have not yet adopted modern building codes. In countries where performance-based standards are applied, clear evidence of a widespread and widening performance gap (between the designed and actual performance of buildings) has existed for decades. As a result of inadequate and ineffective building standards frameworks, member states of the UN are being asked to make a concerted effort to strengthen statutory building standards by incorporating those that are currently voluntary (such as those contained in building rating schemes including BREEAM and LEED) and commit to such changes long term.

Level playing field

The disjointed and ineffective manner in which building standards are currently applied continues to have an increasingly detrimental effect upon our natural

Goldsmith

largest

environment. With building professionals now working across international borders without leaving their home or office, what is the justification for maintaining a complex and costly web of standards –many of which are similar in nature but are developed and set in different ways in different countries or localities?

Having been developed domestically for centuries, building standards now need to evolve to meet the complex global challenges being faced. They need to be improved and simplified, incorporating a mix of prescriptive (particularly on lifesafety issues) and performance-based approaches, all encompassed within a single, cost-free framework that can be applied internationally. This would require countries and existing key stakeholders to put self-interest aside, together with incredible levels of interdisciplinary collaboration between specialists who are currently siloed in different standards development bodies throughout the world. An extremely unlikely pipe dream? Perhaps, but with unprecedented levels of development set to take place in the coming decades – and with climate change and resource depletion advancing at an alarming rate – more of the same clearly isn’t sustainable.

Building Regulations, Codes and Standards: A guide for safe, sustainable and healthy development is available through ICE Publishing at: bit.ly/ICE_buildingregs

Street in Norwich is an example of the client (Norwich City Council) and architect (Mikhail Riches) seeking out building standards that went beyond the minimum requirements of the Building Regulations. It is the UK’s

Passivhaus scheme and the first social housing project to win the Sterling Prize. Diagram bottom right shows how the east/west terraces were arranged to maximise solar heat gains while minimising overheating

“Building standards are regularly watered down to stimulate economic activity and are applied inconsistently on a country-by-country basis”

Getting your house in order

The Building Safety Act 2022 (England) (BSA) has laid the groundwork, with a number of government consultations taking place late last year – and this year we will see the impact of that as the changes outlined in the BSA filter their way through to the industry with increasing speed. Some of those changes will need secondary legislation, but we have already started to see this trickling through.

Building safety has been on the industry’s radar for a few years now, but with the rafts of information being published about it – and the discussions about it having developed and evolved over that time –stakeholders in the industry are not always fully up to speed with what they need to know. So what do you need to watch out for this year?

The definition of higher-risk buildings

Higher-risk buildings (HRBs) will be particularly impacted by building safety regime changes (although the changes will also affect non-HRBs to a lesser extent). Broadly, HRBs are buildings of at least 18m in height or at least seven storeys, containing at least two residential units. However, in 2022 the government consulted on proposals to exclude certain buildings from being HRBs.

Hitting the ground running in 2023, draft secondary legislation in the form of the Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 (bit.ly/Higher_risk_buildings) has now been published. These Regulations will still need to be considered and ratified by Parliament, but it seems unlikely that they will be altered in any material way before coming into force, which is expected to be at the beginning of April.

As such, you should consider whether the current definition of HRBs impacts any of your properties or projects, and keep an eye out for the final form of legislation.

Simon Lewis and Michelle Essen at law

firm Womble Bond Dickinson say the construction industry should brace itself for major changes this year as the new building safety regime comes into play

Gateways

One of the main changes proposed for HRBs was the introduction of ‘Gateways’ into the building approval process. Gateway 1 is already in place, occurring at the planning stage.

Late last year, the government consulted on its proposals for two further Gateways. This would affect both new and existing HRBs with the process for each being different, but by way of example, the process for a new HRB as set out in the consultation paper would be:

Gateway 2 (pre-construction) – under the proposals, the applicant must submit a building control approval application to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) before construction. This replaces the current ‘deposit of full plans’ stage. The BSR would determine the application within 12 weeks (or longer if agreed). In the meantime, building work must not start without this BSR approval; and Gateway 3 (post-construction) – it is proposed that the applicant would submit a completion certificate application to the BSR and hand the Golden Thread information to the accountable person (who assesses and manages building safety risks post-construction). The BSR would determine the application within 12 weeks (or longer if agreed).

In the meantime, a new residential unit in an HRB cannot be occupied before the BSR completion certificate is granted.

The outcome of this consultation is awaited, but there are industry concerns about the impact of these Gateways on project timescales and budgets, particularly if buildings cannot be occupied for up to 12 weeks after completion, and the further impact on funding and insurance in this situation.

In the meantime, consider how this would impact your business, projects and budgets. Start having early conversations with other project stakeholders you are working with about how you might mitigate these risks in future projects, subject to the outcome of the consultation.

Duty holders

The BSA introduces ‘duty holders’ and again a government consultation last year provided more detailed proposals on this. In brief, under these proposals, for both HRBs and non-HRBs, duty holders would be the client, a principal designer, designers, a principal contractor and contractors. This is similar to, but not necessarily the same, as under the CDM Regulations; the duty holders’ focus here would be on building regulations compliance rather than health and safety under the CDM Regulations. There would

Further reading

Five things you need to know right now about the Building Safety Act: bit.ly/WBD_BSA

For more information on the Gateways and duty holders, visit: bit.ly/WBD_changes

The Golden Thread During Design and Construction: bit.ly/WBD_goldenthread Fire Safety Duties for Occupied Buildings: bit.ly/WBD_occupied

be duties for all duty holders to comply with, such as managing and monitoring work, co-operating and ensuring competence, as well as separate duties for various duty holders depending on their role, for example whether they are the client or a designer.

Duty holders for HRBs would have extra obligations. For example, the client must appoint the principal designer and principal contractor early to help it make a Gateway 2 application. These duty holders will also have various obligations relating to the Golden Thread. Again, the outcome of this consultation is awaited. Within your own organisation, it’s worth considering who the relevant duty holder should be, whether this overlaps with the CDM role or would be kept separate, and what training and insurance is available.

Golden Thread

After the Grenfell fire, the Hackitt review into the tragedy identified the need for a Golden Thread of information: “Both the information that allows you to understand a building and the steps needed to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future.” Essentially, it is about retaining relevant, up-to-date information about HRBs, which evidences compliance with building regulations – and also about reviewing that information regularly to ensure it remains relevant and up-to-date during the life-cycle of the HRB. The detail on what information and which documents should be included in the Golden Thread is still awaited, although a government consultation in late 2022 provided some insight.

For occupied buildings

From January, we saw new duties around displaying fire safety information, providing specific information to residents about fire doors, wayfinding signage, retaining plans and information in a secure information box, and regularly inspecting firefighting equipment under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.

For relevant buildings, under the BSA changes, we expect to see duties placed upon the ‘Responsible Person’ (generally the employer, building owner/ occupier or managing agent, in respect of areas of the building within their control) and the ‘Accountable Person’ (broadly, the person who either owns or has responsibility for the structure and exterior of the building, or the communal areas.) It’s worth keeping an eye on the Building Safety Act’s progress throughout the year at the Womble Bond Dickinson building safety hub.

Visit the Womble Bond Dickinson building safety hub at bit.ly/Womble_Bond_Dickinson

“You should consider whether the current definition of higher-risk buildings impacts any of your properties or projects”

The world is a very different place from the one it was in 2010 when Building Regulations Approved Document F: Ventilation was revised. In the years since, we have not only learned considerably more about indoor air quality (IAQ), pollutants and their impact on our health, but we have also had to contend with a pandemic that has changed our relationship with our home environment.

During this timeframe, albeit more recently, the drive towards the 2050 net-zero goal has become more intense. To reduce emissions as close to zero as possible, we must decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy, including housebuilding.

Set in this context, it is without a doubt that Building Regulations Part L (Conservation of fuel and power) and

Part F were ripe for an update. After some delay, these were published in December 2021 with the aim that new homes built from 2022 produce 31% fewer carbon emissions compared to previous standards.

A further revision will come into force in 2025. Referred to as the Future Homes Standard, these changes will represent the housing sector’s key strategic driver to achieve net zero. It requires new homes to be considerably more energy efficient, with average homes having 80% fewer carbon emissions than those built to current energy efficiency requirements.

Who needs to comply?

If a building notice, initial notice or full plans for building work were submitted to a local authority before 15 June 2022 and the building work commences by the

A breath of fresh air

same date this year, the new standards do not apply. For building works after those key dates, the revised Part L and Part F must be followed.

Furthermore, there are no exemptions based on the size of the new build. Under the previous regulations, smaller developments were exempt from airtightness testing. Now airtightness testing is mandatory in all new build dwellings. So, when it comes to Part F, all new dwellings must comply with this aspect. This is necessary if we are to produce the type of airtight, low-energy buildings laid out in the Future Homes Standard.

Of course, the more airtight we make our homes, the greater the need for adequate ventilation to maintain a healthy and comfortable environment.

Building Regulations Ventilation: Approved Document F has received an overdue update, providing a framework that will help make new homes fit for purpose and help meet net-zero targets, says Domus Ventilation’s Paul Williams

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Air flow systems

Mechanical ventilation systems in the form of mechanical extract ventilation (MEV) and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) are recognised in Building Regulations as the most proficient means of ventilating a highly airtight dwelling. To ensure incoming air reaches all parts of a home – especially the bedrooms – the minimum ventilation rates have been increased as follows:

with the background ventilation to be determined on a room-by-room basis rather than based on the whole property, this will probably mean much larger grilles are required than has been normal in the past. No matter how well designed the grille is, it may compromise the aesthetics of the property from both inside and out.

Ultimately, compared with an MVHR system, natural ventilation is unlikely to be as energy efficient a means of ventilating a home, as heat will be lost and there is no guarantee of moisture or pollutants migrating outside. The other change here is that passive stack systems have been removed as an option.

Air pollution guidance

With our increasing understanding of air pollution’s dangers to our health, the revised Part F addresses both internal and external air pollutants more thoroughly. Useful indoor air pollution guidance has been added, covering exposure limits and times for carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (CH₂O) and total volatile organic compounds.

In areas with high levels of outdoor pollution, advice has been provided on the location of intake grilles, primarily away from the direct impact of the sources of local pollution. Where urban traffic is a source of pollution, the air intakes for dwellings next to busy urban roads should be as high as possible and located on the less polluted side of the building. Ventilation intakes should not be located in courtyards or enclosed urban spaces where air pollutants are discharged.

For larger properties, this increase is substantial and will mean choosing mechanical systems with greater fan power.

In a much-welcomed move, predicted occupancy rates have been removed from the ventilation calculations, making them far more straightforward.

Two key changes have been introduced here. The first is the guidance on sizing background ventilators, including intermittent extract fans, trickle vents in windows and airbricks in the wall. These are to be done on a room-by-room basis rather than the whole property.

The second applies to extract-only systems, such as MEVs, where the background vents must be increased in size from 2,500mm² to 5,000mm². This may well impact on the property’s façade and window sizes.

Natural ventilation systems, such as background vents, remain an option, although only for less airtight homes with a design air permeability of ≥5. However,

Research undertaken by the government suggested that many homes are unable to comply even with the previous Building Regulations Part F requirements, either through confusion and a lack of understanding of the requirements, or deliberate flouting of them. To help address this, the reporting procedures were tightened up under the 2021 revisions. Now, a new style commissioning sheet featuring a compliance report and photographic evidence must be provided to Building Control bodies and the building owner, along with a Home User Guide specifically for householders.

So much has changed in the years since Building Regulations Ventilation: Approved Document F was previously revised. The changes made to Part F look to the future and how we can provide housing fit for purpose.

For more information visit domusventilation.co.uk

The Future Homes Standard requires new homes to be considerably more energy efficient

Smoke and heat exhaust ventilation systems are used, in the event of fire, to remove the smoke and heat found in the buoyant layer of warm gases above cooler and cleaner air, thereby improving the tenability conditions during means of escape and firefighting phases. These systems also help to prevent flashover, offer a benefit for property protection and in general reduce the damage of heat and gases to a building. The original smoke ventilation systems used within buildings were natural systems and, while alternative solutions for ventilating smoke now exist (such as mechanical extract, pressurisation and hybrid systems), aspects of natural smoke ventilation can be found within almost all buildings.

As natural smoke ventilation is so common, it is important that the parties responsible for the smoke ventilation systems – including designers (such as fire safety engineers and architects), manufacturers, installers and maintenance engineers – are coherent in specifying these systems to ensure the building meets the design intent and achieves its life safety objectives. Therefore, all those involved with smoke ventilation systems should understand the complexities in defining the performance of such systems.

While the UK fire safety industry commonly provides natural smoke and heat exhaust ventilators (NSHEVs) within buildings, the terminology used to define the NSHEVs in both standard guidance and fire safety documentation uses varying criteria, which can result in ambiguity. Accurate definition of the size of openings is critical to the performance of the building, particularly given the likelihood of misinterpretation increasing as responsibility for the system changes throughout planning, design, specification and installation.

This gives rise to a situation where using different guidance results in NSHEV systems with different size openings, all claiming to be compliant and effective. In the worst case, it is questionable whether this gives rise to smaller openings than intended to achieve the required performance.

While this article has implications for all smoke ventilation systems, for simplicity of reference it will

It’s good to vent

Sam Bader, Fire Engineer at Trigon, asks if we are specifying the areas of NSHEVs incorrectly due to varying guidance – and if terminology should be aligned

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only refer to NSHEVs achieved via vents opening directly outside. Furthermore, this article will not focus on the applications of NSHEVs but on the design and performance of these systems, including addressing how the smoke and heat modelling undertaken for said system translates to its application.

Defining area openings

This article uses the following definitions for the geometric free area, aerodynamic free area and coefficient of discharge (as specified in BS 7346-8:2013 and BS EN 12101-2:2017):

Geometric area is the area of the opening through an NSHEV measured in the plane defined by the surface of the construction works, where it contacts the structure of the NSHEV Aerodynamic area is the geometric area multiplied by the coefficient of discharge; and

Coefficient of discharge is the ratio of actual flow rate, measured under specific conditions, to the theoretical flow rate (geometric area) that occurs through the NSHEV.

The relationship between the three terms identified above is illustrated in a basic schematic below:

Only by understanding the inter-relationship of these factors can the accurate performance of a system be understood. However, there are a number of terminologies, other than those specified above, which are used within the industry for the measurement of the size of openings. For example, Section D5 Approved Document B: Volume 2 (ADB:V2) specifies the free area of a smoke ventilator should be measured by either of the following:

a the declared aerodynamic free area in accordance with BS EN 12101-2:2017; or

b the total unobstructed cross-sectional area (geometric free area) measured in the plane where

Figure 1 – Relationship between geometric free area, aerodynamic free area and coefficient of discharge

“Accurate definition of the size of openings is critical to the performance of the building, particularly given the likelihood of misinterpretation”

the area is at a minimum and at right angles to the direction of air flow (Diagram D7) [of ADB:V2].

However, Diagram D7 of ADB:V2 does not illustrate how a vertical hinged NSHEV “free area” is calculated for this application, introducing ambiguity. Throughout, ADB:V2 defines the size of openings as “free areas” or “permanent openings”.

Similarly, BS 9999:2017 refers to cross-sectional area (free area) and geometric free area when defining minimum sizes for vents/shafts within buildings. This is ambiguous in determining real performance, as one NSHEV of specified “free area” could have a range of different aerodynamic free areas dependent on the coefficient of discharge.

As highlighted above, there is a lack of consistency in the various guidance documents in common use, with references to geometric free areas, permanent openings or even “cross-sectional areas”. While it is theoretically possible that the use of these metrics could provide adequate ventilation in the case of a fire, this cannot be obtained with certainty as the terminology does not provide performance criteria. Perhaps these documents should align their terminology by using the aerodynamic area to define the performance of an NSHEV, as recommended by the SCA Guide on Heat Exhaust Ventilators.

Application to CFD

The size of openings in NSHEVs must also be clear when undertaking fire and smoke modelling. The number of fire safety engineers undertaking computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies has grown alongside the growth of the fire safety sector in the industry. With the introduction of Graphical User Interfaces, such as Pyrosim for Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), heat and smoke modelling has become significantly easier. This raises the question of whether the modeller, who is becoming in general less experienced, understands the intricacies of the model well enough to ensure data is entered accurately to get the correct results. When undertaking to model, the modeller should accurately represent the size of the NSHEV opening,

as specified in the relevant fire safety strategy information. This opening should also be accurately specified in the CFD report. In the UK, it is common to find CFD reports specifying “free area” or “geometric free area” without definition, opening up the possibility that a system will be incorrectly specified.

To use data input into an FDS model as an example, it needs to be understood that an opening in a wall or ceiling (used to represent an NSHEV) does not incorporate a coefficient of discharge. Therefore, by introducing a hole to represent an NSHEV, the performance efficiency of 60% or less (approx) is not incorporated (a hole is assumed to have 100% efficiency, meaning the model would overestimate the NSHEV’s performance).

To ensure more accurate performance, it is recommended that an opening within an FDS model should represent a hole of aerodynamic free area rather than geometric free area, as identified in the SCA Guide.

It is recognised that CFD modelling commonly incorporates other conservative factors, such as fire sizes, ventilation to the fire and door opening times, meaning that the difference in the performance of NSHEVs may not have a significant impact on the results. However, it is always better practice to accurately represent the NSHEVs in the first place.

Summary

There are different approaches within the UK fire safety industry for determining the size of openings for natural smoke ventilation. Current guidance uses ambiguous terminology, leading to a higher risk of misinterpretation or misunderstanding, particularly among less experienced designers and specifiers.

Terminology, including how the effective size of opening areas has been determined, should be accurately defined within the fire safety documentation, which should be agreed upon at an early stage by those involved in the design. Ideally the aerodynamic free area should be used to define the size of natural smoke ventilation openings as a precise measurement that reduces ambiguity throughout building development.

For more, visit trigonfire.com

Free area measured at right angles to air flow

2 – Diagram D7 extracted from ADB:V2

Figure 3 – CFD model of NSHEV in FDS

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022is made under article 24(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“the Fire Safety Order”) and came into force on 23 January 2023. The regulations make it a legal requirement for responsible persons of a high-rise residential building to advise and inform fire and rescue services to assist them with planning a safe fire evacuation response and procedure.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, the government launched an independent Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The initial findings were published in October 2019, with recommendations that included legislative change. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 will introduce the majority of the guidance from the inquiry.

What do the new regulations cover?

Regulation 3 defines what a highrise residential building is and the importance when defining what is and what is not required.

Regulations 4 to 8 enforce the duty of the responsible person (defined in article 3 of the Fire Safety Order) in relation to such high-rise residential buildings:

4) to provide and install a secure information box in the building and for various plans and information to be placed within the box

5) provide information on thedesign and materials of the external walls/façade

6) provide floor plans and building plans (electronic and hard copy requirements for residents and fire service personnel)

7) lifts and essential fire-fighting equipment is to be regularly inspected, tested and maintained in working order, with a requirement to notify the fire service if such lifts or firefighting equipment become out of use; and

8) wayfinding signage – clear markings of floor identification and the identification of domestic premises at each level.

Regulation 9 imposes obligations on the responsible persons to provide fire safety information to residents of the building. This includes, but is not limited to, instruction on what to do and who to call in cases of

Fire safety

fire, and the evacuation strategy for the premises.

Regulation 10 covers the requirements for fire doors in all residential buildings with communal areas and two or more sets of domestic premises. This regulation imposes strict and more frequent inspections of fire doors to be undertaken, with particular emphasis on the flat front entrance doors. Regulation 11 requires certain information to be supplied to fire and rescue authorities to assist them to plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response.

It is a requirement in law for responsible persons of high-rise residential premises to provide the information under all required regulations above.

Regulations made under article 24 can impose requirements on responsible persons or others, including building owners/freeholders and building managers/agents, in relation to mitigating the risk to residents for specific premises.

SOCOTEC can support compliance with Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. Visit socotec.co.uk

SOCOTEC gives the lowdown on the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and the new legal requirements

SOCOTEC gives the lowdown h Fi S f(E ld)

All in the mind?

It has been proven time and time again that buildings have a massive impact on how people think and feel – but how can building design capitalise on this better, asks Peter Crush

Long before Covid-19 completely transformed where people worked, the world of behavioural science was increasingly interested in building design – and not just the headline-grabbing ‘cool offices’ such as Google’s Mountain View campus with its helterskelter-style slides.

What workplace academics particularly wanted to get their heads around was the interplay between people and their working environments, and whether it actually had a long-lasting impact on people’s mental and physical wellbeing. It spawned whole new design specialisms – from understanding the benefits of biophilic design (buildings that give people a more direct experience of nature) to creating new building standards, such as The WELL Building Standard (which certifies buildings for how they improve the health of inhabitants).

It’s not difficult to see why this was the case. Rather than being seen as places that nurtured and inspired people, offices were being branded havens of harm

– as airless, artificially-lit spaces that bred fatigue and weariness. Workers were suffering, and their surroundings were seen as being a contributory factor.

What’s followed has been a slew of exciting research on everything from building air quality (research carried out by the World Green Building Council suggests fresh air contributes to an 11% increase in productivity) to light exposure. A YouGov survey commissioned by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) recently found 70% of office workers said they felt poor workplace air quality had a negative effect on their day-to-day productivity and wellbeing. A study conducted by the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University, meanwhile, has found that something as simple as seating staff within ten feet of a window led to an 84% decrease in eyestrain and headaches. “Placing people in office spaces with optimal natural light should be one of [HR’s] first considerations,” concluded Alan Hedge, the study’s lead professor. He estimated that by limiting access to natural light, employers were losing 2% in employer productivity – or an additional $100,000/year of value for every 100 workers.

How buildings affect the mind

But while research tends to focus on things that are easy to measure (air quality, for instance, can record levels of CO2 and concentrations of VOCs – Volatile Organic Compounds), there is a growing interest in an area that’s traditionally been much harder to judge – the way building design impacts human psychology. This new branch of work is an attempt to predict the way a building makes people feel – which can be subjective at the best of times. How valid is it? Can it really be proven that building design positively impacts people’s psychology, and in turn their physical and mental health?

Working backwards, it has certainly been proven that good mental health correlates to physical health. Research shows that people with mental health issues

Building design and neurodiversity

It is estimated that more people than previously thought (between 15%20%) can be described as neurodivergent. Typically used to describe someone’s behavioural characteristics (such as autism or ADHD), it also describes how people have differences in perceiving the world around them.

This means building design – including the way it over- or under-stimulates the senses – can have a huge bearing on those who are neurodivergent. Typical considerations include

sensory design – such as lighting, tonal contrasts, acoustics, flooring and décor – which, if not tackled, could trigger unsteadiness or migraines.

Historically, guidance around what constitutes good neurodiverse-inclusive design has been patchy. BS 8300 suggests buildings should be designed taking into consideration for “the potential discomfort induced by strong patterns on walls and floors”. Painted steps may also present problems to people

with sensory processing difficulties, causing them to have problems deciphering that stairs are even there.

Since last year, however, things have become a bit more concrete with the launch of the first-ever BSI standard providing guidance on neurodiversity and the built environment: PAS 6463 Design for the mind. Included in the standard are provisions for considering “sensory overload” – the overstimulation of the body’s senses, leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Increased cognitive load is proven to increase anxiety, fatigue and, in some cases, poor mental health. As well as addressing sensory design

considerations such as lighting, acoustics, flooring and décor, other elements include how buildings impact people’s wayfinding.

Rob Turpin, Head of Sector (Healthcare) at the BSI, says: “Previous building standards were very much along the lines of accessibility and remodelling buildings to suit those with physical impairments, such as incorporating ramps or having wider doors. But we wanted to look into how we build spaces and what impact they have on those who might be, for instance, autistic or have learning difficulties or even dementia.

“The guidance provides information around how

BBC Cymru Wales in Cardiff has an official neurodiverse building

buildings can meet the different needs of different people – for example, by having better wayfinding, quiet spaces for those who can’t cope with a noisy office or different lighting levels.

“It’s aimed at existing buildings and new ones, and it’s more around the adjustments that can be made to make people feel safer and have better mental clarity in a building.”

Turpin accepts there is no single recipe for designing the perfect building – but buildings can (and should) be designed to have elements within them that help those with different needs. He says: “At

the moment this is just guidance, but hopefully after we’ve evidenced how different interventions work, we can bring this element of building design under one single standard.”

Firms that have already embraced neuro-inclusive design include BBC Cymru Wales, which has an official neurodiverse building. Executives there wore VR headsets to experience how someone who is neurodivergent might experience a typical office space – from experiencing lights that appeared to flicker to patterned carpets that seemed to be moving up and down.

report suffering more stress and anxiety, and as a result are more likely to have a preventable physical health condition such as heart disease. According to the King’s Fund, 30% of all people with a long-term physical health condition also have a mental health problem.

Determining the extent to which good building design creates good psychological wellbeing can be hard. Not only are the factors that contribute to wellbeing multi-faceted, but each contributing factor (such as people’s sense of purpose, the support structure around them or their financial wellbeing) is difficult to isolate on its own.

What is the science saying? As early as 1984, Roger Ulrich, now Professor of Architecture at the Center for Healthcare Building Research at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, published a seminal study implying that the recovery rates of people undergoing cholecystectomy procedures (the removal of the gallbladder) were significantly faster if they were positioned in beds facing views of green nature compared to those facing a brick wall.

More recently, in 2019 he conducted research around how the design of Swedish juvenile residential units correlates to stress and aggressive behaviour –concluding that more communal space and access to nature provides a place to socialise, fosters a sense of control, and produces a rapid and significant psychological and physiological reduction of stress.

Form and function

“It’s well known that our brains are doing a huge amount of work below the conscious threshold to make sense of different stimuli around us,” says Katie Hart, neuroscience expert and specialist in neuromarketing. “Spending so much time in buildings is relatively new in our evolutionary history, but if we appreciate the brain is always on alert and determining whether the space around us makes us feel safe, it’s clear that this constant questioning to determine if the environment is making us feel threatened or vulnerable, or relaxed and happy, has a real psychological impact.”

The fact that plenty of existing buildings – built long before neuroscience was even a study – are celebrated for the way they make people feel is testament to their design. Designers of hospitals –anxiety-inducing places at the best of times – seem to have been very aware of this, and they typically feature wide, airy atriums to put people at ease. Shopping centres mimic natural light to always give a sense of daylight (so people shop for longer), while

IMAGE: JACK HOBHOUSE

“It’s well known that our brains are doing a huge amount of work below the conscious threshold to make sense of the stimuli around us”

Design: the home-builder’s view

Mitchell Walsh, Managing Director of north-west property development firm IPG, says building design and human psychology have become something firmly at the front of his mind. “During Covid-19 I lived in a one-bed apartment, and this was the time I realised how much the building I was confined to impacted my mood.”

At IPG, which has a portfolio ranging from bespoke city-centre apartments to student accommodation, Walsh says the living spaces he creates are designed to maximise people’s mental wellbeing.

“We use boutique architect firm Snow Architects and, wherever possible, they try to incorporate fully floor-to-ceiling windows because we know lighting

has a massive impact on people’s psychological state.”

He adds: “New minimum space guidelines are a big improvement – they pretty much mean a one-bed apartment is now the size of what used to be a twobed one, and this gives more opportunity to play with space inside. But we try and create more space outside too. It’s firmly on our agenda to build in more communal and green spaces because all the evidence suggests that this makes for a more mentally relaxing environment, and one that people have a greater sense of connection to.

“We also make sure façades of properties are interesting, as we know the

new airport terminal designs such as Heathrow’s Terminal 5 try to channel people into doing everything they need in a straight line.

Even though building design has always acknowledged what Hart calls “the interplay between function but also what its users expect”, experts agree that mainstream building design has yet to embed how a building impacts people’s psychological states in the same way it looks at more functional matters.

“Even though we know that our built environment matters, very often we downplay its importance and treat environments as neutral – as if they are simply a setting for our day to play out,” concurs Alasdair Rankin, Managing Partner at Aitken Turnbull Architects. “But there are studies that demonstrate that the environments we inhabit directly impact us as humans. Architecture cannot remove the stress associated with a hospital visit, for example, but it can help to provide comfort and relaxation, mitigating the associated stress points of orientation and crucially returning control – something so often stripped away by an unexpected diagnosis.

“Just as much as having the wrong human characters in a team impacts people’s experience of their workspace, so will having the wrong

science also speaks to this. Our recent Copper Box development in Crosby attempts to create more character with unusual cladding, for example.”

Because buildings are also important in creating a variety of visual cues, Walsh says he likes to ensure developments feature artisan businesses – such as independent coffee shops and bakeries – to create a community feel.

He adds: “We also have experts that look at the psychology around different colours.

“Ultimately, someone’s home should be their happy place. Communal space and access to greenery is one area all developers could do more on.”

Recovery from procedures was significantly faster when beds were positioned facing green nature

Shopping centres mimic natural light to always give a sense of daylight

IMAGES: GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY

Residential green and blue space

workspace. Most of us are now convinced that the future of successful workspaces is in the provision of compelling spaces that draw team members in.”

A problem, argues Hart, is that established techniques of neuroscience commonly used in advertising – such as getting people to use wearable devices that measure their stress-level responses or changes in heart rhythm – have not yet transitioned into mainstream design practice. She says: “We’ve all experienced that feeling we get when a building leaves us cold, confused or unsafe, but it’s difficult for us to verbalise why. If you do ask someone to explain, they tend to retrospectively rationalise why they felt that way. But neuroscience actually proves that measuring physiological responses enables us to predict people’s future behaviours and feelings far better than their verbal responses.

“Architects and designers could really advance this thinking if they routinely began to incorporate these methods into their work. Electrical responses in the brain, combined with virtual reality (VR) and eye-tracking technology, would be able to measure where people look and what responses this provokes. It’s exciting stuff, and the best bit is that with VR, the brain quickly forgets that it’s not looking at the real thing, so the results are as valid as someone looking around a real building and are therefore extremely accurate. What would be even better is then seeing how buildings continue to have an impact on people days, months and even years further down the line.

“There’s a school of thought that says the initial ‘wow factor’ of a building will dissipate over time. However, this is just what we are consciously aware of. Neuroscience tells us that what doesn’t dissipate are our subconscious responses. This will be where long-term issues become evident – when people feel depleted by a space and less alert, or more oppressed and less creative.”

What about how a building looks?

Where psychology and building design merge is around what’s known as ‘visual complexity’ – the way buildings look, and the extent to which it stimulates our fight or flight or pleasure responses.

Biologically, our brainstem takes in sensory system information from the peripheral nervous system and distributes it to the corresponding parts of the brain, where it is classified as pleasing or displeasing. When researchers (such as those from the University of Waterloo in Canada) asked people to walk around cities with wearable devices measuring their subconscious psychological state, the results were dramatic. Groups tended to hurry past ‘dead-zone buildings’ – those that were carbon copies of stores found in any other city. By contrast, people’s moods increased as buildings became older or had more interesting façades. The authors wrote of “an emerging disaster in street psychology” where “suburban retailers begin to colonise central cities [and] block after block of bric-abrac and mom-and-pop-scale buildings and shops are being replaced by blank, cold spaces that effectively bleach street edges of conviviality.”

This type of analysis of building design and human psychology starts to veer away from the internal look

and feel of a single building to the interplay of groups of buildings and how these buildings play a part in urban design.

This way of looking at building design and the impact it has references one big psychological idea – the existence of ‘social stress’ that urban living supposedly brings. This is where densely compacted buildings crowd out green space and the open air, overwhelming those who live or work there.

In these environments, it is reported that people can feel they have less ability to build social bonds. Social isolation is now recognised by urban authorities as a major risk factor for many illnesses, with studies showing that people with strong social connections live longer. A report by the Grattan Institute called The Cities We Need suggests that “a city that ‘builds in’ isolation through its housing options, transport accessibility and other features can have significant consequences for the strength of people’s relationships and for physical and mental health”.

Design: the office provider’s view

Even before the pandemic, employers were finding they were having to work harder to create environments stimulating enough for their employees. Competition from cool-space providers such as WeWork has only accelerated attempts to further consider the psychological impact work buildings have on staff. This baton is now being picked up by developers, including Yaron Rosenblum, Co-Founder of Canvas Offices, which is a designled flexible office space provider.

“For us, good psychologyboosting design starts with access to light and fresh air,” he says. “But we have a phrase that we like to use, which is that buildings need to have an ‘authenticity’. By this we mean stripping it back, exposing the way it’s been built, taking out horrid partitions and polystyrene ceilings and exposing its raw structure. People want to know how strong the place is and

how it was built. We believe that when they see it, it creates a more pleasing experience for them.”

Rosenblum says there is a new trend for workspaces being ‘resimercial’ – a portmanteau of ‘residential’ and ‘commercial’, meaning residential design elements in commercial spaces.

“We love the colour white,” he says. “Nothing beats it for giving the impression of size, space and brightness. However, we’ll work with employers to incorporate their corporate colours as these can help create a sense of belonging to that brand.”

He adds: “With proper consideration, a building can propel people’s sense of wellbeing. What it boils down to is ensuring people feel comfortable – rather than alienated – from the environment around them. It’s a work in progress, but productivity and wellbeing have to work hand in hand.”

“Neuroscience actually proves that measuring physiological responses enables us to predict people’s future behaviours and feelings”

Can better building design reduce crime?

In 1989 a police initiative called Secured by Design was launched to investigate how building design could reduce crime. Every few years, the research is re-evaluated to provide updated guidance on the latest links between the urban environment and anti-social behaviour and crime.

Jon Cole, Chief Operating Officer of Police Crime Prevention Initiatives, says: “Secured by Design was born out of the fact that [the police] knew there was crime taking place that we felt was preventable and, as the experts in knowing what creates crime, we felt we could engage with the building sector to better design environments that help curb it.”

Secured by Design accepts there is a clear link between better health and lower crime, and that properly designed neighbourhoods create health benefits that improve people’s mental wellbeing and contribute to reducing crime.

Cole adds: “We’ve been stringently assessed and the data finds that in new build Secured by Design housing projects there is 87% less crime, while in refurbished locations there is a 67% reduction in crime. Moreover, this reduction continues over time.”

Glasgow Housing Association is just one provider that has followed Secured by Design principles. Those that engage with it often seek to undo the perceived failures of Radburndesigned housing estates – the layout of which has been explicitly blamed by residents for creating problems of antisocial behaviour.

Cole concludes: “The more buildings are designed for mixtures of uses, the more dynamic the area and the more appealing it feels to people. A fact that’s often forgotten is that sometimes fear of crime can be as debilitating to quality of life as the crime itself.”

Urban planning

The more studies explore this, the more they seem to suggest that urban design (and therefore the contribution from building design) matters. For instance, when the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare gathered information about how city-dwellers aged 25 and over experienced residential green and blue spaces (green spaces include forests, gardens and parks, while blue areas include sea, lakes and rivers) within a 1km radius of their home, the results were startling. It found that people who visited green or blue spaces three to four times a week were 33% less likely to be taking mental health drugs, 36% less likely to be on blood pressure medication and 26% less likely to be on asthma medication. In addition to this, other studies have suggested growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety.

Even though experts appreciate the merits of these studies, some caution against seeing them as proof of

the pure power of buildings and building design. One such expert is Dr Jamie Anderson, Urban Wellbeing Research and Practice Lead at Buro Happold. He says: “There are countless studies out there, but attempting to definitively tie buildings to wellbeing and how happy people feel is in its very early days. The science of wellbeing as a concept is in its infancy, and it’s only in the last five or so years that it’s been linked more convincingly to the built environment.

“There are now good correlational and sometimes longitudinal studies that suggest access and exposure to green and blue spaces may reduce negative mental states and boost wellbeing. But we need a great deal more longer-term and intervention studies to step towards causality. This goes for nature-based solutions and other key potential pathways such as access to good jobs and social infrastructure.”

One problem, Anderson argues, is that there can be alternative explanations for a link between design and a population’s experienced wellbeing. For example, is it the green space itself that attracts healthier and fitter people to start with? “The danger is that we can overegg the theory, our intuition and early science. We need to track these relationships over time, before and after a change in the environment, and rule out as many alternatives as possible. It may well be that the design factor of interest does play a role, but it may be partial, highly contingent on other factors, have no effect or even bring unintended negative consequences.”

At an existing large-scale £8bn urban redevelopment project the University of Manchester and Buro Happold are working on – Brent Cross Town (BXT) in North London – data will be collected to see how wellbeing is impacted by regeneration over time. This, says Anderson, should start to shed light on just how transformative the improved resources afforded by the new town actually are for inhabitants.

Others argue that with more research there will be a much stronger consensus on the impact buildings have on the quality of people’s lives.

“There’s a whole new lexicon developing now,” says Professor Carlos Moreno. He is Associate Professor at the University of Paris and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Forum of the Human Smart City – as well as the person who coined the term ‘15-minute neighbourhood’, which is the idea that places should be designed so everyone’s needs can be met in a short walk or cycle from their home. He says: “Terms include the ‘happy proximities’ concept and ‘gentle density’, and having more of a ‘human design’ to buildings. We need to develop a new urban culture and feel where people love their neighbourhoods. Buildings that only have a commercial or residential use put the sense of community at risk and change the mentaility of people.

“We need to consider the shape of buildings to create a complete neighbourhood. Too often we develop buildings without thinking about the human relationships they create.”

These are all noble visions. Even though some of the science supporting this change of mindset may still be nascent, the indications are that there is a growing appetite to understand this better – which bodes well for the future.

“With more research there will be a much stronger consensus on the impact buildings have on the quality of people’s lives”

Decline and fall

What impact have recessions had on the construction industry in the past, and how will that play out this year as the IMF predicts a contraction of the UK economy, asks Matt Lamy

In the summer of 2014, a fateful decision was made. Rather than fit zinc cladding with a mineral-rich fire-retardant polyethylene core to the exterior of Grenfell Tower – as had been proposed and approved – the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation and contractor Rydon instead opted to install cassette fix aluminium composite material cladding (ACM).

The result, as we now know, was tragic. But in the aftermath of the disaster, the reason why the exterior cladding specification was changed became quite

clear: by fitting cassette fix ACM panels, the price to refurbish Grenfell Tower could be reduced by almost £300,000. In the drive to reduce building costs, it was the most misplaced saving in modern British history.

Whatever lessons have been learnt because of the Grenfell Tower fire, the attendant dangers that come with the reality of economic difficulties can never be entirely removed – and the UK is certainly facing economic difficulties right now. Wholesale energy prices are turbulent; the cost of living continues to rise; and the International Monetary Fund is predicting the UK’s economy will shrink by 0.6% in 2023. According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), a third of all businesses reported their turnover falling between November and December 2022; 41% of businesses reported an increase in the prices of goods or services bought in the same period; and 23% of businesses reported their overall performance, including pricing, trading and workforce, had fallen in December 2022 compared with December 2021.

The need to find savings is obvious. But in construction, cost-cutting, circumventing of standards and competence, and heightened pressures on the workforce can bring significant risks. Here we look at some of the most pressing issues.

Mental health

In male-dominated industries such as construction, mental health is a particular concern. The ONS Suicide by occupation, England: 2011 to 2015 report showed that the suicide rate among low-skilled workers in construction is 3.7 times higher than the national average, with construction

Mates In Mind

Established in 2016 by the Health in Construction Leadership Group (HCLG) with the support of the British Safety Council, Mates In Mind is a charity that aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of workplaces across the UK by helping employers raise awareness, improve understanding and address mental ill-health.

Steve Hails, Director of Business Services and HSW at Tideway, is the Founder

workers six times more likely to take their own life than to die in a fall.

How mental health is affected by events such as recessions isn’t entirely clear, although some trends have been identified. In the report Mental health outcomes in times of economic recession: a systematic literature review published in the BMC Public Health journal, researchers found that “periods of economic recession are possibly associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems, including common mental disorders, substance disorders and ultimately suicidal behaviour”. However, these outcomes are also affected significantly by mediators such as unemployment, income decline and unmanageable debts.

For those in steady work, the effect of recession or economic downturn on mental health is even less obvious, although the added stress that such situations can bring is cause for concern and awareness. In its overview Mental health conditions, work and the workplace, the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says: “Work-related stress where such stress is prolonged can lead to both physical and psychological damage, including anxiety and depression. Work can also aggravate pre-existing conditions, and problems at work can bring on symptoms or make their effects worse.”

A major component of such stress can be the pressure of client expectations. However, it is important to remember that under Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM), there is the expressed requirement for commercial clients to “make suitable arrangements for managing their project, enabling those carrying it out to manage

and Chair of Mates In Mind. He says: “There are some organisations that are purely focused on mental health first aiders, but that in itself is reactive: you’re dealing with the problem once the problem has arisen. Mates In Mind also looks at the underlying issues that construction has in abundance that maybe other industries don’t have.

“Do we have such a high suicide rate in construction because we have such a transient workforce? Is it because we have so many

people who are selfemployed? Is it because we are predominantly male? Is it because in lower-skilled jobs, financial issues are a concern? It’s about bringing the underlying issues to the fore and seeing what you can do differently to create an environment where people feel part of a team.”

Mates In Mind has a simple checklist to help identify if someone might be experiencing mental health problems: feeling restless or agitated feeling tearful

not wanting to talk or be with people using drugs or alcohol to cope with feelings not replying to messages or being distant not wanting to do things they usually enjoy finding it hard to cope with everyday things recent inability to concentrate on work or in meetings recent inability to complete work; or a new pattern of unexplained lateness or absences.

Visit: matesinmind.org

health and safety risks in a proportionate way. These arrangements include [among other requirements] … allowing sufficient time and resources for each stage of the project [and] making sure suitable welfare facilities are provided for the duration of the construction work.”

For construction industry-focused help and advice, mental health charity Mates In Mind offers valuable resources specifically designed for the building industry (see box).

Physical safety

In terms of physical health and safety during the current economic malaise, HSE comments that while it has not carried out specific research looking at the impact of economic fluctuations on construction health and safety performance, it does

monitor trends “using the latest data on the construction industry available from the ONS’s Construction output in Great Britain statistical bulletins”. It continues: “We are also represented on the Task Force of the Construction Leadership Council, which publishes a monthly construction update. This allows us to stay aware of and, where appropriate, respond to developments across the industry.”

HSE has previously studied safety trends during economic downturns and the results are perhaps surprising. In its report Trends and Context to Rates of Workplace Injury (Research Report 386), which looked at safety data over an almost 20-year period, HSE found the most dominant influence contributing to an individual’s risk of injury is occupation, with the top two most hazardous occupational categories being construction labourers and metal, wood and construction trades. However, analysis of the data revealed that it was actually a 1% increase in GDP above trend that could be associated with a 1.4% increase in the rate of major accidents. Or, in other words, safety risks increased as economic recovery took hold. And further detailed analysis revealed that this pro-cyclical pattern is particularly prominent within construction and manufacturing sectors.

“Two main mechanisms have previously been cited to explain the pro-cyclical

pattern in accidents,” the report says. “Firstly, accident rates will increase with the hiring of new staff, since newer workers are more at risk of injury. Secondly, accident rates will increase at times of increased worker effort – for example, as overtime working increases in response to higher demand.”

On that first point, the risk of workplace injury declines rapidly as employment tenure (how long someone has been in a job or role) increases, with increased risks particularly apparent during the first four months of a new job. In simple terms, that means if a firm was to lay off less experienced staff in times of recession, its safety outlook would – according to trends – be more likely to improve.

The second factor, however, could have a negative bearing in recession times, especially if fewer workers are being asked to do more. In terms of worker effort, the report identified that an increase in the ratio of overtime to usual hours was estimated to be associated with higher rates of workplace injury.

Countering this, underworking is also associated with increased accident rates: “In terms of the length of the working day, after correcting for exposure, those working fewer than ten hours per week were most likely to report having had a reportable workplace injury per hour worked,” the report says.

Products and materials

If the situation regarding worker safety during recessions is mixed, what about the budgeting, design and specification of products and materials – essentially the root cause of the Grenfell Tower fire? Douglas Masterson is the Technical Manager of the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (gai.org.uk) and says his members see the effect of this more clearly than anyone else in the industry.

He adds: “Architectural ironmongery can be one of the most frequently changed items in a building specification because, when contractors and developers are getting towards the end of a project and budgets have started to run low, ironmongery is one of the last things that gets installed. Obviously, a contractor will be looking at ways to bring a project in

“If the situation regarding worker safety during recessions is mixed, what about the budgeting, design and specification of products and materials?”

Whistleblowing

At times when cost-cutting may be prevalent, it’s important to know that, under UK law, employees are allowed to whistleblow if they witness certain types of wrongdoing. However, the wrongdoing must be in the public interest, which means it must affect others. Employees are protected by law if they report any of the following: a criminal offence – for example, fraud someone’s health and safety being in danger risk or actual damage to the environment a miscarriage of justice a company breaking the law –for example, it does not have the right insurance; and if you believe someone is covering up wrongdoing.

The UK Government website says: “As a whistleblower you’re protected by law –you should not be treated unfairly or lose your job because you blow the whistle. You can raise your concern at any time about an incident that happened in the past, is happening now or you believe will happen in the near future.” For more advice visit: gov.uk/whistleblowing

If you are not sure you would be covered by whistleblowing protection as an employee, you can seek further guidance from Citizen’s Advice: citizensadvice.org.uk

Whistleblowing does not include personal work grievances or disputes. If you need help resolving these issues, contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS): acas.org.uk

under budget and it’s a very easy thing to say, ‘I’ll just go with the cheapest alternative’. However, those people may not be the best qualified to do that. It’s easy to supply ironmongery off a shopping list but, when things go wrong  on-site, how is that contract managed?

“What we have found in our GAI research is that although ironmongery is worth 2% of a project on average, in terms of its impact on ongoing costs, it can have a 25% to 30% impact on maintenance bills. And when it comes to things like fittings on fire doors and escape doors, if you despecify ironmongery with a noncompliant solution, you could end up in a very difficult situation.”

Even despite a looming recession, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire the product specification landscape is changing. Masterson is also Co-Chair of Working Group 12: one of the working groups set up following the Hackitt Report to look specifically at competence in construction products. He adds: “I think there’s always the temptation to use cheaper products, but at the moment there is more of a push for people to ensure that what they are doing is right. Time will tell, but what

comes out of the Grenfell Inquiry will have significant implications. Certainly, when it comes to competency and ensuring that the correct product is chosen and installed correctly, there is more and more pressure being brought to bear.”

Competence

That brings us to the issue of competence more generally. While economic considerations are certainly real and significant, the construction industry is in the midst of a mindset change in the way it views competence that seems unlikely to be knocked off course.

“When we’re talking about innovation and change to the wider construction industry, the most significant issue that has come up through the Building Safety Act is a real push in competence and demonstration of that competence,” says Masterson.

“There are a number of new British standards that have been written regarding competence in terms of the principal designer, the principal contractor and those responsible for building safety. In Working Group 12, we have published a white paper on how to be able to assess your competence in construction through a competence product framework, to the extent that we are in the early stages of looking to use that to create a new British Standard. At the moment there is also an Interim Industry Competence Committee (IICC) and I sit on its baseline subcommittee. This will become the Industry Competence Committee later in the year and that will ultimately report directly to the HSE. Whatever the wider economic conditions, if ever there was an agency that would not want people to be falling asleep on its watch, it’s the HSE.”

While it’s impossible to gloss over the economic difficulties currently facing the construction industry, the full picture isn’t necessarily quite as negative as it might appear. The year ahead will be tough for many. But if the industry can continue to commit to the recommendations made following the Grenfell Tower fire, that would be the very least that might be expected out of respect for those who died.

Download the Working Group 12 white paper at: bit.ly/CPA_whitepaper

“Time will tell, but what comes out of the Grenfell Inquiry will have significant implications”

Industry movers and shakers

PEOPLE NEWS

LABC Excellence Awards

Wates Group’s Projects Manager

Glyn Williams has won Site Manager of the Year at the annual Local Authority Building Control (LABC) Excellence Awards. Williams, who has worked in construction for 40 years, mostly on commercial projects, was recognised for his continuing work on an affordable housing development in Mostyn on the North Wales coast.

The award celebrates the skill and commitment it takes to deliver quality in construction. LABC Warranty works

in partnership with LABC, providing structural warranties and building control for new build and

newly converted buildings across England and Wales through a combined network of more than 3,500 surveyors.

Wates Group

Eoghan O’Lionaird has joined Wates Group as its new Chief Executive. He holds degrees in engineering from University College Cork and the University of Limerick, and an MBA from the Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has previously held executive roles at marine services company James Fisher and Sons plc, Spectris plc, Danaher Corporation, Philips and Mitsui Kinzoku. O’Lionaird takes over from Interim Chief Executive Philip Wainwright, who has been in the post since the summer of 2022. Wainwright returns as planned to his role as Chief Financial Officer.

BCIA Young Engineers Network

The Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) has announced that its Young Engineers Network (YEN) has elected its inaugural Chair and Vice Chair. Greg Smith, Lead Commissioning Engineer at E.On Controls, has been elected to the position of Chair, with Abbie Bewley, Trainee Control Engineer with InTandem Systems, in the role of Vice Chair.

Established in April 2022, the BCIA YEN provides networking opportunities for future talent and support to allow career progression. BCIA President Graeme Rees is excited about the prospect of the industry’s young talent taking on a prominent role in shaping the future of  the building controls sector.

Abloy UK

Abloy UK has appointed Kevin Birch as its new Regional Specifications Manager in the Republic of Ireland to develop and strengthen the company’s presence in the region.

World Cement Association

World Cement Association (WCA) has appointed three new directors to its board. Fabien Charbonnel, Xu Gang and Kevin Lunney join Mohammed Ali Al-Garni and Roland van Wijnen, who were both re-elected to the board.

Keystone Lintels

Keystone Lintels has promoted Charlotte Armstrong, its Regional Sales Manager in the North, to Northern Regional Sales Director.

CoreHaus

Modular housing manufacturer CoreHaus has promoted Dan Selby to Managing Director. The company has developed a £20m pipeline of affordable housing projects spanning the North East, North West and into Scotland. Selby said: “Many housing associations across the UK are committed to delivering 25% of all new build homes using modern methods of construction.” CoreHaus is a joint venture between national social enterprise Fusion21 and Carlton & Co Group.

Whitecode Consulting

Dean Loizou, Whitecode Consulting’s Associate Director, has achieved Chartered Engineer status (CEng) and is now professionally registered with the Engineering Council.

Association update The Built Environment Series

Due to the continuous shift in the industry and emerging demands following the Covid-19 pandemic, the requirements for face-to-face events have changed. There is now a need to modernise and adapt our events to meet the needs of both industry and our members.

In 2023 we are completely redefining our conference season, and we are delighted to introduce six events as part of our new Built Environment Series

Our events programme will comprise four major regional events taking place in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Every event will be a demonstration of both regional and national expertise, featuring guest speakers from a range of disciplines, topical discussions and interactive Q&A sessions, as well as the opportunity to network with industry professionals and suppliers during the trade exhibition. This series will culminate

CABE is at the BSR Conference

CABE has been invited to exhibit at the first-ever Building Safety Regulator (BSR) Conference on 22 March. Taking place at Central Hall Westminster, this conference is an opportunity to hear directly from the new Regulator on the changes coming into effect in April 2023. There are 900 attendees already confirmed and CABE is delighted to be involved.

with the Built Environment Live event, where CABE will have a significant presence at a large trade event at Excel London in December.

For the first time ever, the pinnacle of the series – the Built Environment Awards – will take place as a standalone event in early 2024. The awards will be held in London as an exclusive event followed by a gala dinner.

We hope members will embrace the opportunities this programme offers and find them valuable, insightful and beneficial. We look forward to collaborating with those old and new as we welcome you all to the Built Environment Series.

The first will be Built Environment England, which will take place at the University of Salford on 20 June, followed by Built Environment Wales at Cardiff Metropolitan University on 22 June.

Find out more and book your place at builtenvironmentseries.com

MEMBER NEWS

CABE is delighted to welcome the following into membership:

CHARTERED FELLOW

C Richards – Bradford

CHARTERED BUILDING ENGINEERS

S Coombs – Nailsea

L Di Candilo – Cambridge

KH Law – Hong Kong

A Marsden – Braintree

G McPhee – Ruislip

K Pantelides – Middlesex

J Payne – Bristol

M Rawlings – Chippenham

CHARTERED MEMBERS

S Chung – Hong Kong

R Humphries – Doncaster

L Maison – Northampton ASSOCIATES

N Bird – Bramdean

P Budden – Bournemouth

S Cole – Seaham

J Grummitt – Ickleton

W Lightfoot – Amersham

M McLeod – Glasgow

R Rayner – Ipswich

G Simpson – Crieff

D Tadd – Kent

S Thompson – Solihull

A Wrigglesworth – Pontefract

D Yeatman – Nottingham

K Ziobrowski – Surbiton

GRADUATES

K Antwi-Boasiako – Castleford

A Bhandari – Wembley

L Brady – Prenton

F Clark – St Ives

G Drake – Barnsley

SY Ling – Hong Kong

K Singh – Cannock

C Woffinden – Worksop

TECHNICIANS

L Kirchell – Weyhill

M Lewis – Welwyn Garden City

Members who have achieved a higher grade:

CHARTERED FELLOW

WL Leung – Hong Kong

CHARTERED BUILDING ENGINEER

M Ali – Ilford

CHARTERED MEMBER

T Powell-Davis – Romford

ASSOCIATE

P Woodman – Waterbeach

GRADUATE

B West – Coalville

To find out if you are eligible for a higher grade, send your CV to membership@cbuilde.com for review

We welcome back into membership: CHARTERED FELLOW

J McAllister – Carluke

CHARTERED BUILDING ENGINEERS

P Hobson – Ireland

G Steer – Vale ASSOCIATE

S Cafferkey – Ireland

I Hodgson – Fernhill Heath GRADUATE

R Bulcock – Blackburn

CABE is pleased to welcome the following new partners: Hitechniques Ltd HomeSnagSurvey Ltd

The following members have achieved additional registrations: CHARTERED ENVIRONMENTALIST

WC Hui – Hong Kong

For membership information, contact HQ on +44 (0)1604 404121 or e-mail membership@cbuilde.com

The above membership information is taken from 09 January to 02 February 2023.

Webinar Wednesdays

OBITUARY Michael Mann Hon FCABE

It saddens me to pass on the news that Michael Mann, CABE’s former Engineering Council Liaison Officer and last year’s recipient of the Peter Stone Award, has recently passed away. Michael was instrumental in supporting CABE with the acquisition of its Engineering Council Licence in January 2020, and continued to play a big part in our processes in the years that followed. With his vast experience in civil engineering, and his considerable knowledge of the registration process, he became invaluable in

relation to maintaining and improving our processes surrounding our licence.

Once he stepped down as our Liaison Officer, we were extremely happy to be able to offer him the grade of Honorary Fellow of CABE in recognition of his contribution to the Association; an honour I know he was proud and delighted to accept. Michael will be sorely missed by all at CABE, and our thoughts and best wishes go out to his family and friends.

GAVIN DUNN CABE Chief Executive

This free webinar, presented by David Keeble, Head of UK Sales at Coopers Fire will provide you with a greater understanding of fire curtain barriers - illustrating when and where they can be specified, along with the governing standards that regulate their use.

5 minutes with...

Hong Kong-based Chartered Engineer Bett y K Y Lo CEng C Build E MCABE on the challenges in her profession

QHave you always had an interest in construction/engineering?

I enjoy turning ideas into physical reality with the use of science and technologies for construction/ engineering solutions.

QWhat was your route into the profession?

I studied building technology and then started my career as a subcontractor, followed by a wide spectrum of related areas of the construction/engineering profession including client, consultant and contractor for private and public works projects.

QDid you change direction at any point, and if so, why?

I didn’t – I stayed in construction/ engineering and instead chose to enrich my domain knowledge, communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills and experiences for the best collaboration with a range of stakeholders.

QWhat are the current challenges of your role?

Fast-tracking, design feasibility, safety and sustainability of several projects concurrently.

It is also a challenge to involve many stakeholders across a variety of disciplines, including construction

managers, architects, engineers, surveyors and supervisors.

QWhat question do you get asked most often?

How to provide the most efficient and effective construction/engineering solution with the least impact on the environment.

QWhat inspires you?

Bringing a female contribution to the wellbeing of society inspires me. That, and the fact that hard work pays off

QWhat is the biggest challenge facing the profession, in your opinion?

Making sure we have enough competent personnel available – the right team, workflow and process to complete a project in accordance with the scope, on time, within budget and at a quality standard.

QWhat advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

I would give my 20-year-old self advice on acquiring construction/ engineering knowledge and skills through innovation, creativity and change in connection with the levels of risk, with a view to facilitating work in the dynamic industry environment.

QDid you experience any difficulties entering the profession because of your gender?

I experienced difficulties in entering the engineering/built environment because it’s a male-dominated culture with limited prospect of career progression for women. However, my enthusiasm and passion came through. I’ve demonstrated key communication and management skills by facilitating collaboration with stakeholders – including clients, contractors, subcontractors, consultants and service providers of different disciplines.

QWhat specialist considerations are there for construction in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate. It is compact with high-density space utilisation – this means that it’s packed with major high-rise buildings and massive structures.

This is all in a region that has lowto-moderate seismicity and is in close proximity to the sea.

“The biggest challenge facing the profession is making sure we have enough competent personnel available – the right team, workflow and process”

Principal Surveyors

Salary up to £75k + benefits

+£10K GOLDEN HELLO*

Join one of our amazing teams in the North West (Liverpool, Manchester), Oxfordshire and South East (Kent).

It’s our culture that attracts and retains the very best in Building Control to Salus, with a large number of staff exceeding 10 years of professional service within our expert, national team. With twenty years experience working across all sectors and a commitment to dedicated partnerships with the biggest companies and organisations, our services are highly sought after.

As one of our team, you will have flexible, hybrid working practices, generous pension, travel and holiday packages as well as professional fee payment and training. Our corporate structure actively encourages promotional opportunities and career progression. We will support you with achieving Competency Standards in specialised areas within our profession, ongoing CPD and the opportunity to gain recognised qualifications and professional memberships.

Our experts are at the forefront of delivering ‘building compliance without complexity’ and are supported by in-house administration staff and sector specific I.T. solutions that fit seamlessly with your requirements. We offer the very best for your expertise and professionalism and welcome your application to our family friendly team, where you can enjoy your role and participate in a range of professional, social and charity events throughout the year.

We can offer the right candidate:

○ Flexible, hybrid working

○ 31 days annual holiday + bank holidays

○ £10,000 Golden Hello*

○ Pension scheme

○ £4,800pa Car Allowance plus 45p per mile or

○ £650 per month salary sacrifice contribution to our tax efficient hybrid/electric car scheme

○ Payment of 2 professional fees

○ Excellent structured Career Pathway opportunities including Management Training & CPD

○ All-inclusive structure

○ Excellent support staff

○ Regular social and charity events

○ Supporters of “Mates in Mind”

Interested? Email your C.V. to: recruitment@salusai.co.uk