The government has committed new funding of £70m to address shortages in building safety professions.
The funding will increase the number of registered building inspectors by up to 700, including those (Class 3H) who can inspect high-risk buildings, as well as increase the number of fire engineers and availability of fire engineering education.
The three-year funding programme is in response to recommendations from the House of Lords regulatory committee for the government to increase capacity the building control and fire engineering sectors.
Both the Fire Engineers Advisory Panel and responses to the Building Control Independent Panel’s call for evidence, have highlighted the importance of suitably qualified and trained professionals. The funding is split between the building control (£55m) and fire engineering (£15m) sectors.
Samantha Dixon, minister for building safety, fire and democracy, said: “We’re boosting the building safety workforce to get more skilled building inspectors and fire engineers into the system quickly to keep people safe and unlock the new homes this country needs. This is a vital step in building 1.5 million safe homes and ensuring we continue to deliver on lessons from the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”
