Housing: Building Control

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews)
My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Angela Smith) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am today publishing a short report by my department on options for the future development of the building control system. This report follows in-depth discussion with a wide range of stakeholders over the last year, which has raised a number of areas of concern and highlighted the need for reform to the system to ensure that it is fit for purpose now and in the future. This report is not a statement of intended government policy. It is an indication of those ideas which we believe have the greatest potential for reforming the building control system effectively and which we intend to develop further before issuing a full consultation document later in the year.

The package outlined in the report includes possible reforms in six broad areas:

the future of building control—establishing the vision and strategy for future delivery;
 

modernising the system—effective risk-based inspection and enforcement;
 

new routes to compliance—minimising the burden;
 

a customer-centric approach—improving guidance and other tools to aid individual compliance;
 

improving our approach to regulation—stability and forward planning; and
 

performance management and future capacity.
 

The report can be accessed via the Communities and Local Government website at www.communities .gov.uk/buildingregs and is also available in the Libraries of both Houses.