News

The Minister for Housing in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Director of Building Safety in the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) have published a joint letter directed at registered building managers which is designed to resolve issues that have arisen around safety cases and their reports.

CABE is happy to announce that Richard Flynn PCABE CEng CEnv C.Build E FCABE is the Association’s new President.

The introduction of urgent legislation to address the disparity of legal protection to citizens affected by defective premises in Northern Ireland has been passed by the Executive.

Building Engineer reports regularly on industry news. Here’s a round-up of recent online articles.

As my time as President draws to a close, I look back with pride at what CABE has achieved and reflect on what an honour it has been to lead the Association over the past year.

The three-day National Retrofit Conference, curated by the Retrofit Academy and in partnership with Futurebuild, showcased what was being done to help decarbonise 27 million homes. Once again, the pressing need for a skilled retrofit workforce was the topic of debate.

Following a review of Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has signed regulations entitled Building Regulations (Part B Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. No. 108 of 2024).

In March, a cargo ship experiencing electrical difficulties crashed into one of the support pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, US.

From now onwards, The Pallet LOOP will attach a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on each reusable green pallet it produces. This will generate data about the movement of pallets and associated building materials nationwide as they pass through the supply chain.

This year’s World Environment Day on 5 June is hosted by Saudi Arabia and has the theme of land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. 2024 also marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

Research by NBS finds half of industry professionals are still unclear on dutyholder responsibilities for higher-risk buildings, while only 20% of respondents feel confident they are very clear on the differences in responsibilities if the project is defined as a higher-risk building.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has appointed a new responsible body to work with landowners and developers to secure areas of conservation and biodiversity.

News agency AFP has reported that the Taiwan quake in April was the most powerful in 25 years.

The Construction Industry Council has issued clarification on designers and principal designers presenting evidence of competence.

The Door and Hardware Federation (DHF) has achieved Cyber Essentials certification.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) has noted that there were 105,449 registers by developers of intent to build in 2023 compared with 189,009 in 2022, with the biggest decrease in the north-west of 61%.

20th Anniversary SocEnv Awards and lectures

The Building Safety Regulator has released guidance detailing the information that principal accountable persons (PAP) must submit when applying for a building assessment certificate (BAC).

Assent Building Control says Assistant Building Control Surveyor Adam Griffin has shown exemplary professionalism, commitment and conduct since joining the nationally approved inspector in September 2020. Recognising this, judges of the CABE Built Environment Awards were impressed by his CPD portfolio, describing it as ‘astonishing for an apprentice’, which made him a clear winner of the Apprentice of the Year Award earlier this year. Building Engineer found out more.

Caerphilly County Borough Council is working with housing association partners to review its allocation policy with the aim of making it easier for people to apply for social housing.