One of the many consequences of the Grenfell fire has been building control’s new found public profile.

The profession got a beating by Dame Judith Hackitt in her interim report into the disaster.

This highlighted a perception that private approved inspectors are less independent than their local authority counterparts and doubts over the effectiveness of the enforcement regime.

There have been grumblings from both sides of the great building control public private divide for many years. Each side thinks the other gets a better deal, local authority building control doesn’t like the way private approved inspectors cream off the lucrative private sector jobs leaving them with unprofitable domestic work. Local authorities also complain about how the ranks of approved inspectors are filled with their ex-employees leaving them to pick up the training tab and a perception that approved inspectors are in thrall to their clients.

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