News

Patrick Bellew and Carol Willis are to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) at its annual international conference Humanizing High Density – People, Nature & the Urban Realm from 16-21 October in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

The Smart Buildings Show is taking place at ExCeL London on 18-19 October 2023. Smart buildings help with operating costs and performance management.

OCS and Skanska Costain STRABAG have developed MudCam, a monitoring, detection and alerting system that continuously monitors areas of mud build-up at construction sites, improving safety and mitigating the multi-million-pound risks of site shutdowns.

Microsoft has announced the end of life for its SharePoint 2013, which means that Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for any problems that occur on the platform, including bug or security fixes for any vulnerabilities that are discovered.

The number of times construction workers and developers were found to be working too close to high-pressure oil, gas and chemical pipes increased by 57% in 2022. Of the 316 incidents in 2022 reported to Linewatch, the pipeline safety and awareness group, 127 were caused by contractors and developers.

The Building Safety Alliance is inviting stakeholders to contribute to the development of a standardised approach to support Accountable Persons in discharging their duties in relation to the Golden Thread.

Introducing the Registration 101 drop-in sessions: access free guidance from the SocEnv team to progress your application. Held via Microsoft Teams, you can join a session from anywhere in the world. The new drop-in sessions are an informal chance to quiz the team about the next steps towards your Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), Registered Environmental Practitioner (REnvP) or Registered Environmental Technician (REnvTech) goal.

The new regime will affect most people working in the industry, and CABE
expects all members to be aware of what they will need to do to comply.

On 1 October 2023, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) became the Building Control Authority for all higher-risk buildings (HRBs) in England.

The recent OceanGate Titan tragedy has highlighted the importance of third-party certification in ensuring safety and quality standards. This article aims to explore the role of third-party certification in mitigating risks and reducing the probability of such incidents. It emphasises the need for external inspection and certification to prioritise safety over commercial interests.

Following the announcement that Building Control will be a regulated profession, the Health and Safety Executive has announced that the service for registering competence is now open.

Fire engineering consultancy OFR Consultants, with the Structural Timber Association (STA), has published its research into cross-laminated timber (CLT) compartment fire behaviour in Volume 6 of the STA’s Structural timber buildings fire safety in use guidance. Its study set out to establish the relationship between different building heights, uses and consequence classes, as well as performance expectations of structures in the event of a fire.

Based on an analysis of incidents logged through its Accident Reporting Portal, the International Powered Access Federation has said that incident reporting has increased over the past year and the fatality rates of the most common types of accidents have declined.

In place since 2017, nutrient neutrality rules in dozens of protected areas across England meant local authorities were prevented from approving any new development that was projected to add to river nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates, either through wastewater from new homes or run-off from building sites.

The Building Safety in Wales report on how the Welsh government, local authorities and their key partners are implementing the requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) has found that responsible bodies – particularly local authorities and fire and rescue – are unable to effectively discharge their responsibilities and ensure buildings in Wales are safe.

The Insulation Manufacturers Association’s Seven Steps to Fire Safety CPD outlines material science, product testing and product classifications, and how this relates to regulations and standards critical to the fire performance of a building.

Aston University has partnered with asbestos consultancy Thames Laboratories (TL) to improve the efficiency of social housing repairs.

Abloy UK recommends familiarisation with the amendment by the British Standards Institution (BSI) to Part 4 of BS 7273: Code of practice for the operation of fire protection measures – Actuation of release mechanisms for doors, to enhance security and provide safer means of controlling the unauthorised use of escape doors.

Regulations and the technical detail underpinning the new, more stringent regime for the design and construction of higher-risk buildings bring changes for all buildings.

Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, has signalled his intention to mandate second staircases in new build residential buildings over 18m, following confirmation from expert bodies that they support this threshold.