Architects question Building Regulation changes

The upcoming revision of Building Regulations will cause more confusion rather than less. That is the view of leading two architectural Institutes which wrote to the Government last week raising concerns about the fragmented approach to the process.

As part of its consultation on the Regulations, 'The Future of Building Control,' the Government has asked sixteen different organisations to tender for the different Parts. The proposed changes could cause "even greater fragmentation," the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT) warn.

"It is difficult to image how the tender of the contract for technical support to the Regulations to potentially several different organisations will do anything other than cause even greater fragmentation," the organisations wrote jointly.

"There are already conflicts in the Building Regulations," said Mark Kennett, CIAT president. "If different Parts are being developed by different people with no one looking at it holistically, then there are going to be more. We are looking for simplication as well as a more holistic approach."

The BRE are understood to have tendered for several of the Parts while Faber Maunsell are already working on Part L. Submissions for the consultation on Building Regulations are due in June.