Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted
Disagreement persists regarding the sufficiency and calibre of Chartered Fire Engineers for remediation assessments.
Recommendation
The Home Builders Federation told us that it was concerned that a shortage of “Chartered Fire Engineers” was a barrier to speeding up developer self– remediation. MHCLG assured us that it did not currently see a shortfall of fire engineers, and that it had access to additional capacity that that could be used if needed, observing that some of its offer was currently underutilised. MHCLG said it had offered this capacity to developers to get buildings assessed quickly, but the HBF told us that only a third of assessors on the government’s panel were the most experienced, well– qualified engineers of the calibre its members chose to use.30 Since we took 27 HM Treasury, Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth report from Session 2019-21, CP 316, November 2020, page 14 28 Qq 18-19, 42 29 Qq 3, 20; RDC0099, Written evidence submitted by the National Fire Chiefs Council; RDC0145, Written evidence submitted by End Our Cladding Scandal 30 Q5, 15, 42; RDC0006, Written evidence submitted by the Home Builders Federation, 4 February 2025 15 evidence, the Government, in its response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, has announced its intention to bring in mandatory competence requirements for fire risk assessors.31
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to provide an update by July 2025 on its work to increase capacity and skills in the building sector to accelerate remediation. It details ongoing efforts, including funding the Building Safety Regulator and bringing in more building control inspectors.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2025 The government agrees to update the Committee on the work it is doing to increase capacity and skills across the building sector to accelerate remediation, by the end of July 2025. Progressing remediation and ensuring that residents are safe in their own homes is a priority for this government. Whilst the government accepts that the context is challenging, it does not accept that it has been complacent about the risks identified by the Committee. Examples of the work MHCLG has done to increase capacity and skills across the sector supporting government’s remediation and housebuilding objectives include: providing additional funding to boost the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) capacity of case officers; improve infrastructure, training and processes to maximise BSR’s operational efficiency; bringing in additional experienced and qualified building control inspectors from private sector Registered Building Control Approvers to bolster its capacity to deal with both remediation work and Gateway applications for new High-Rise Buildings. The department is also working with mayoral strategic areas to drive remediation through Local Remediation Acceleration Plans – bringing together expertise, local knowledge and resources to create single area strategies. In terms of capacity and skills in the construction sector, the department continually monitors and reacts to changes and capacity in the remediation supply chain, via market capacity surveys, supplier engagement forums and through continual liaison and collaboration with delivery partners.