Constructionline Launches Comprehensive Guide for Construction Leaders

For a long time, the Building Safety Act has been viewed as something that’s coming – but it’s here, now, and it’s the law.

The Building Safety Act must influence a change in behaviour across all businesses in the construction industry – but under the secondary legislation, clients, designers, principal designers, contractors and principal contractors are ultimately responsible for building safer buildings and undertaking construction in a more positively impactful manner. Therefore, how can construction leaders demonstrate and monitor compliance across their supply chain, and how will this mindset affect other businesses in the industry going forward?  

Constructionline provides the answer in their new resource series, available to download for free.

Constructionline, the UK’s leading procurement and supply chain management platform for the construction industry, unveils the series with an initial white paper, “Essential Guide to the Building Safety Act.“ This comprehensive resource delves into the intricacies of secondary legislation, compliance frameworks, and the evolving roles of the Building Safety Regulator and Building Control Body.

Key features of the guide:

• • Cutting the jargon: The guide breaks down the most important information from the BSA and the secondary legislation into simple sections, so you can understand what has changed and put it into practice.
  • Strengthening your supply chain: Directing principal contractors, principal designers and general contractors to the right compliance framework and how to enhance competence processes.
  • The golden thread: Implementing the golden thread in six simple steps that every business can apply.
  • Embedding behavioral competence: Its role in legislation and what it means for contractors. 

The new regulations have implemented new responsibilities for the principal contractor, including demonstrating building regulation compliance. Therefore, the principal contractor must ensure that anyone they work with is competent to perform the job and comply with regulations. This is to fulfil legal responsibilities for themselves and their clients when working on all construction projects. The series aims to support principal contractors to navigate this new legislation effectively and provide industry leaders with clarity and valuable strategies to meet the requirements.

Commenting on the importance of understanding the Building Safety Act, Robert Walton, Chief Product and Engineering Officer at Once For All, said:

“The Building Safety Act represents a pivotal moment for the construction industry. It places a huge weight on building safety, accountability and transparency. For construction contractors and subcontractors, adapting to these changes is essential. Understanding the Act’s requirements, cooperating with other duty holders and embracing a culture of safety and compliance will be crucial in navigating this new era of construction regulation.”

Kizzy Augustin, Health, Safety, Fire and Environment Partner at Mishcon de Reya, who supported Constructionline on the development of the white paper series, said:

“The Building Safety Act is an essential reform of building safety, impacting everyone throughout the construction industry. It’s encouraging and commendable to see a business like Constructionline – operating at the very heart of the supply chain industry – providing clear guidance on the essential information companies need to be aware of, identifying the steps that need to be taken to remain compliant.”

Constructionline emphasizes that the new legislation will involve making considerable changes to how the industry approaches constructing higher-risk buildings and building works in general. It will also pave the way for a future of safer, stronger and more transparent processes throughout a building’s life cycle. They encourage all suppliers to get behind the new changes and bring about a new gold standard of due diligence to the industry.

Constructionline is working with industry leaders and their customers to develop new tools to support businesses in meeting the requirements of this new legislation and setting new standards to build a safer future together.

The first white paper in the series is available now and can be downloaded here, with more installments to come. Experts Robert Walton and Kizzy Augustin are hosting a webinar on the Building Safety Act on 2nd November.