Procuring For Building Safety
Published 24 March 2022
The South East Consortium (SEC) have published a guidance document entitled 'Procuring For Building Safety'; with the devastating consequences from the Grenfell Tower tragedy and building safety been a strong influence for this document. The SEC guidance has outlined “The Eight Pillars of Safe procurement” with the eight pillars spanning from no 1. taking responsibility through to no.8 early engagement of the supply chain and sufficient time to price and evaluate bids.
The Chair of the working group Paul Nash Msc FCIOB said in the foreword:
"In July 2021 the Government published the Building Safety Bill, which sets out a new regulatory regime for building safety, with statutory duties for those who commission, design, construct, own and manage higher risk buildings, a system of gateway approvals during design and construction with a safety case in occupation, and a new Building Safety Regulator with powers of enforcement and sanctions."
He went on to say: ''It is against this backdrop that South East Consortium has developed this guidance to provide clear and practical advice to their members, and the wider housing sector, on procuring the right building safety outcomes''.
We would recommend you take time to have a read over this document which has involved a great deal of research an input from the team who have produced this paper.
For additional reading on better procurement, on the 26th of November at Kind & Co, we circulated and issued on our website the Housing Forum's published paper called “Better Procurement for Better Homes”. Click here to read this article.
This paper also offers guidance for HAs and local authorities to offer advice on best procurement practice, which will ensure the delivery of higher quality homes for residents.
At Kind & Co we drive for collaboration and early engagement with our clients to ensure safe, quality and well considered buildings are delivered for our communities. We are pleased to see a drive for a shift in change in the way procurement is viewed and we support these influential reports, which ultimately highlight how we can work together to achieve better buildings.
