The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has awarded a £4.5m contract to a Cheshire-based consultancy to help develop building policy across government.
Adroit Economics, an “economics, technology and regeneration” consultancy founded in 2005 by Dr Steve Sheppard, will be responsible for the “provision of economic and technical research for buildings policy”.
The company has previously prepared reports on building safety and building regulations sustainability for the Welsh Government.
An annex to the MHCLG contract seen by CM details that the services include “[providing] support to [MHCLG] with economic analysis and specialist technical, construction industry and regulatory advice in the development of a range of policy proposals and reforms related to safer and greener buildings”.
Among the contract’s objectives included in the annex are:
- Identifying the economic and societal costs and benefits of possible changes to the building safety regime, building regulations and related technical policy and statutory guidance;
- Assessment of the economic impacts of proposed changes to the building regulations and related policies as appropriate;
- Assessment of the implications, and quantifying of the costs and benefits, of proposed changes to the regulatory regime as the [MHCLG] continues to respond to challenges raised in the Hackitt Review and the Grenfell Inquiry;
- Analysis of potential options for government interventions, for example, on the remediation of fire safety defects, on the insurance and warranty markets for buildings and professional indemnity for key professionals, or on the delivery of market interventions to support leaseholders;
- Evaluation of the costs and benefits of each proposed option or change on a variety of stakeholders, including developers, small businesses, material suppliers, housebuilders and building occupants;
- Understanding the housing supply impacts of policies, including the channels through which they occur, based on detailed knowledge of local planning, land markets, and development viability models;
- Analysis of the impact of potential options for market reform, including on capability and capacity in the private sector.
Building safety advice sources
Currently, the Building Advisory Committee (BAC) is the source of advice for the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) on new and emerging issues relating to building safety regulations in England.
BAC is a statutory committee established under the Building Safety Act 2022, which operates under the BSR. It replaced the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) after its abolition in 2022.
Paul Morrell and Anneliese Day noted in the Independent Review of the Construction Product Testing Regime that with the abolition of BRAC, ministers would “no longer have direct independent advice on matters of building regulations and standards for the design and construction of buildings”.
In 2023, BAC sought to expand its expertise by inviting applications for additional members with specific skills in net zero, social housing, town planning and inclusive design.
The government has also accepted the Grenfell Inquiry’s final report recommendation to appoint a chief construction adviser who will monitor the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government work relating to the building regulations, statutory guidance and the construction industry more generally.
Former UK chief construction adviser Paul Morrell told CM in September that the number of candidates fit for the new role recommended by the Grenfell Inquiry is “very limited”.
