New £70 million funding has been announced to address shortages in building safety professions and help build 1.5 million homes.
The money will deliver a much-needed boost to the building control and fire engineering workforces, both suffering from qualified professional staff shortages, which is both limiting housing supply and was highlighted as an area of concern in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
The funding will increase the number of Registered Building Inspectors by up to 700, including those (Class 3H) who can inspect High-Risk Buildings, as well as increase the number of Fire Engineers and availability of Fire Engineering education.
Minister for Building Safety, Fire and Democracy Samantha Dixon said: “We’re boosting the building safety workforce to get more skilled building inspectors and fire engineers into the system quickly to keep people safe and unlock the new homes this country needs.
“This is a vital step in building 1.5 million safe homes and ensuring we continue to deliver on lessons from the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”
The three-year funding programme is a response to recommendations from the House of Lords regulatory committee for the government to increase capacity in the in the building control and fire engineering sectors, while both the Fire Engineers Advisory Panel and responses to the Building Control Independent Panel’s call for evidence have highlighted the importance of suitably qualified and trained professionals.
Shortages of qualified professionals in safety-critical roles in the built environment was also highlighted in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, with several recommendations concerning building control and fire engineering.
The funding is split between the Building Control (£55 million) and Fire Engineering (£15 million) sectors and a breakdown is set out below:
Building Control:
- Funding for local authorities’ building control teams in England to recruit new RBIs and train them to the required standard (Class 2).
- Funding for local authorities’ building control teams in England to upskill existing RBIs, with many to the standard to inspect High-Risk Buildings (Class 3H).
- Funding for the training of new entrants in Registered Building Control Approvers and local authorities
Fire Engineering:
- Funding will develop higher education provision, including:
- Providing bursaries at postgraduate level.
- And increasing research and academic development.
- The mechanisms for applying for the funds are currently under development and more information will be published in the coming months.
