A ‘significant number’ of councils across England and Wales will be unable to offer building control services from 6 April because of a lack of registered professionals, the body representing these officers has warned.
The concerns are outlined in a letter from Lorna Stimpson, chief executive of Local Authority Building Control (LABC) to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), the Welsh government, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), sent on 2 February.
She writes that a ‘significant number’ of council building control professionals will not be certified in time to meet the deadline for registration on 6 April.
More than 4,500 building control professionals will have to be assessed and certified by that date. As of 31 January, only 1,500 had started the process, according to Construction Management.
A ‘significant number of authorities in England and Wales’ will be forced to cease undertaking a building control function from that date because of a lack of appropriate registered professionals, Stimpson writes. The introduction of the new requirements is prompting an ‘exodus’ of building control professionals, she adds.
Among the tasks councils will not be able to meet are inspections of ‘in flight’ construction and serving stop and compliance notices
Stimpson ‘strongly’ encourages the BSR, DLUHC and the Welsh government to delay the deadline for implementing registration by at least six months.
LABC’s Building Safety Competence Foundation is one of three approved schemes that can carry out building control competency assessments.
