Building Consents’ new consultancy service will aid principal designers with building control insight at key stages of the pre-submission design process
Building Consents‘ new consultancy service responds to the greatest change in legistaltion and culture since the Second World War in the Building Safety Act.
With such change comes uncertainty. Developers, architects and contractors are faced with a cultural shift in the way the industry needs to deal with safety and adapt accordingly. Many of these changes are procedural, some are technical, but all have an impact on the way that the industry has to operate.
One of the key changes is the introduction of the principal designer role. From October 2023, it will be a requirement that all projects involving a multi-disciplinary design team must be led by a building regulations principal designer.
What does the building regulations principal designer role involve?
The Building Regulations Principal Designer (PD) must plan, manage and monitor design work, as well as cooperate, coordinate and communicate to ensure the design work complies with building regulations.
It is important that the principal designer is part of the design team and not a third-party without any influence over design decisions. The principal designer should be able to co-ordinate the design team.
A principal designer is not expected to be an expert in every design specialism, but they are expected to know enough about the building regulations to assess whether a building design will comply with all relevant regulations.
Principal designers should support others, for example, in being able to pass on necessary information to contractors and explain to them how to demonstrate that elements are built properly.
How can Building Consents help?
Approved inspectors are not permitted to offer design advice and so cannot act as a consultant to the principal designer.
Building Approvers Ltd. has therefore been established to offer building regulations plan checking and advice to principal designers at key stages of their design ahead of submission for formal approval by the Building Safety Regulator or Building Control Body.
We will provide advice to the principal designer from initial draft designs through to working drawings and assist the project through planning gateways. Once the project has been handed over to a Building Control Body, our responsibility would cease and the baton be handed on.
Using our building control experience to bring your project up to spec
Established by managing director Glyn Thomas, an Approved Inspector who has been practising for over a decade, Building Consents is staffed with key professional qualified building control surveyors that have experience of working with high value, HRRBs and commercial developments and following a defined QMS to guarantee consistency and adequate audit trails of decision making.
All projects would be peer reviewed and all professional staff will be qualified at Level 3 of the Registered Building Inspector scheme by April 2024.
With building approvers as part of the design team advising the principal designer, all aspects of building regulation compliance on the project will be addressed swiftly and thoroughly- removing any uncertainty and limiting risk.
To learn more about about how Building Consents could assist your principal designers, visit www.approvers.co.uk or contact info@approvers.co.uk.
