Policy & Regulations

The Properties Division of Northern Ireland’s Department of Finance has made changes to Part E (Fire Safety) of the Building (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 and to Technical Booklets E (Fire Safety 2012) and R.

Ministers have been urged to overhaul the “nightmare” compensation scheme for flood victims after it emerged that nearly 80% of businesses in some parts of England had been denied support.

Anthony Burd, Past President of CABE and Director of Built Environment at BSI, explains a new subscription scheme to help small firms.

Alex Minett, global head of new markets at Veriforce CHAS, explores the role of competence in the new Building Safety Act.

Speaking at the Sir James Wates Lecture for the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng said the Final Report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is a final call to construction to step up and address its problems, or face further intervention and regulation.

The 2nd edition of Bringing Back Homes – Manual for the reuse of existing buildings (2024) has been published by the Irish government.

New legislation in California has been passed that mandates safety training for companies that spend more than $100m on training a “frontier model” in AI.

The Procurement Act aims to take all of the guesswork out of bidding for contracts, but, as Peter Crush asks, will it work?

The Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) calls for greater use of automation and control systems.

Tara Page, the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists’ Chief Executive, has written to the Northern Irish Assembly opposing the accelerated passage of the Defective Premises Bill, which would retrospectively extend liability for defects in houses and apartments from six years to 30 years.

Wates Group has enhanced its paternity leave policy from eight weeks to 12 weeks, and this can be taken any time within the first two years of the child being born or adopted.

In July, the new Labour government set out 40 bills and articles of draft legislation in the King’s Speech. These included the Planning and Infrastructure Bill intended to streamline and speed up planning and associated infrastructure needs to get more housing built.

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has today published guidance on the golden thread of information requirements for higher-risk buildings.

CABE is delighted to announce that Dr Hywel Davies HonFCIBSE joined CABE in August as Head of Technical Insight.

Ofwat has proposed that three water companies will be fined a total of £168m for failing to manage their sewage treatment works and sewerage networks appropriately.

Two contractors that failed to ensure the safety of an engineer who was part of a team replacing a Trisomat screen have been been fined a total of £76,000 after the machine toppled forwards crushing the self-employed worker.

Key players in the engineering sector have responded to the General Election result after the Labour Party won a thumping majority.

In May, the UK government published its consultation response about the regulation of heat networks, confirming its intention to introduce new legislation in 2025 to enshrine consumer protections on pricing and performance.

Proposals to strengthen provisions in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 have been met with mixed views.

With the chronic housing crisis and the forthcoming general election, the discussion around accelerating housing delivery is more pertinent than ever – especially if the UK government’s target of 300,000 new homes per year is to be achieved.