Leading safety and compliance expert, Bureau Veritas is encouraging landlords and duty holders to prepare for the Fire Safety Act 2021 which will make significant changes to fire safety regulation – describing the legislation as a new era for building safety. Given Royal Assent on 29th April this year, the
Kingspan’s founder, Eugene Murtagh’s fortune has gone up nearly a billion dollars in a year, but investors are moving away from the Grenfell Tower insulation supplier. Forbes published its annual list of billionaires earlier this week with Kingspan founder and Chairman, Eugene Murtagh is on the list with a $2.4 billion fortune,
Due to the horrendous event at Grenfell Tower this year, the London Fire Brigade have publicly criticised the apparent overall lack of competence show by building designers as well as construction companies. In order to make sure that eh people designing and constructing out buildings have the knowledge to ensure
Leading safety and compliance expert, Bureau Veritas is encouraging landlords and duty holders to prepare for the Fire Safety Act 2021 which will make significant changes to fire safety regulation – describing the legislation as a new era for building safety. Given Royal Assent on 29th April this year, the Act will amend the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and aims to make it clearer where responsibility for fire safety lies. The new laws apply to buildings containing more than one home that are more than 18 metres or six/seven stories in height and seeks to respond to the outcomes of the Hackitt Review. The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarifies that the responsible person or duty holder for multi-occupied, residential buildings must “manage and reduce the risk of fire” posed by the building’s structure, and most notably external wall systems, including windows and balconies, and individual occupants’ entrance doors. Under the clarification, fire and rescue services will be authorised to take enforcement action and hold building owners to account if they are not compliant. This latest law follows on from various action already taken designed towards strengthening the whole regulatory system for building safety, including new sprinkler requirements and the forthcoming Building Safety Bill which was presented to Parliament on 5th July 2021. John O’Sullivan MBE, Technical Director – Fire Consultancy at Bureau Veritas, states: “The approval of the Fire Safety Act marks a significant step in the right direction to mitigate the fire risk in relation to life safety and building safety and is one of the biggest outcomes of the Grenfell Inquiry to date. The government is expected to release further guidance on the Act later this year, as there is further consultation currently taking place in relation to the stay put policy and evacuation procedures for high rise residential properties. “Therefore, we would encourage any landlord or duty holder to take stock of the new changes already in place and review its current fire risk assessments policies. The Fire Safety Act potentially poses new challenges for duty holders, with the inclusion of the building structure, external walls, balconies and windows now forming part of a fire risk assessment process, and with the onus now firmly placed on duty holders to get it right, its essential these are done properly.” The Fire Safety Act also provides a foundation for secondary legislation to take forward recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one report, including lift inspections, reviewing evacuation plans and fire safety instruction for residents. The upcoming Building Safety Bill, which was placed before parliament on 5th July 2021, and is expected to be passed into law by 2022, this is likely to include parts of phase two recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry that will enact a change in Building Regulations. John continues: “With these new changes enforced by the Fire Safety Act, and more updates to come in the near future, it may seem a daunting task for landlords or a residential buildings duty holders to keep on top of the regulations to ensure risk assessments are accurate. However, third party health and safety firms, like Bureau Veritas, are able to conduct compliant fire risk assessments and make recommendations for necessary changes to mitigate the risk to ensure homes remain safe.” Bureau Veritas offers a comprehensive range of fire and life safety consultancy services to suit all requirements, including fire risk assessment, fire engineering, building control and fire science. The testing, inspection and certification expert offers duty holders the unique opportunity to select the services they require to help improve fire safety management in their buildings, whilst benefitting from the cost-efficiencies of a combined service. For further information on how Bureau Veritas can support with fire risk assessments and fire and life safety strategies call 0345 600 1828 or visit www.bureauveritas.co.uk
Kingspan’s founder, Eugene Murtagh’s fortune has gone up nearly a billion dollars in a year, but investors are moving away from the Grenfell Tower insulation supplier. Forbes published its annual list of billionaires earlier this week with Kingspan founder and Chairman, Eugene Murtagh is on the list with a $2.4 billion fortune, up from $1.4 billion in 2020. He owns 16% of the shares in Kingspan, which he founded in Ireland in 1965. Kingspan is the manufacturer of insulation materials used on Grenfell Tower. Kingspan executives appeared in front of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry through November and December 2020 and gave further evidence at the end of March 2021. WHEB, a financial investor specialising in sustainable investing, published the minutes of its Investment Advisory Committee and revealed why it no longer invests in Kingspan. “Our overriding concern is that there was, in our view, a culture within the UK operations that saw regulation as an impediment to doing business. There is clear evidence that senior leaders sought to manipulate tests to provide positive results. There is also evidence of management seeking to bully and threaten employees and put pressure on external consultants and clients who raised concerns. “This core issue of culture remains, in our view, largely unaddressed by the company. Compounding this concern was the decision by the company to appoint the CEO’s brother to the Board. This appointment was announced with the annual results in late February. In our view, this was a missed opportunity to make board appointments which present the clearest possible signal of independent governance.” Concluding its analysis, WHEB said that the cultural problems in Kingspan were “tacitly endorsed by group management” and that they did not believe that proposed remedies would go far enough to deal with these concerns. As a result, WHEB sold all its financial interests in Kingspan by 26 February 2021, 0.11% of Kingspan’s outstanding equity. WHEB is not the first investing firm to respond to the evidence provided at the Inquiry. In January, The Irish Times reported that Liontrust Asset Management had also cut its investment in Kingspan by about 400,000 shares. The Mail on Sunday published its survey of ethical investment firms on 23 January and found many still held Kingspan shares but were reconsidering their positions. “Until late last year, the £2 billion Baillie Gifford Positive Change fund had Kingspan as a top ten holding, with 3.9 per cent of its assets in the company. But last month, it reduced this stake.” The Grenfell Inquiry reconvenes on 19 April.
Due to the horrendous event at Grenfell Tower this year, the London Fire Brigade have publicly criticised the apparent overall lack of competence show by building designers as well as construction companies. In order to make sure that eh people designing and constructing out buildings have the knowledge to ensure that the completed product is safe for use, a number of high-ranking figures in the London Fire Brigade have said that training and certification is needed to assure inhabitants and ensure such a terrible event never happens again. It is thought that is there is no action taken, there will be an increase in the number of serious building fires taking place. In order to prevent this, it is vital that the construction industry starts to take fire safety more seriously. This criticism has been submitted by the fire department to Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review into building regulation and fire safety. BESA has also been working with their members in order to highlight the need for a greater assignment of responsibility as a part of their own submission to the Hackitt Review. The Hackitt Review is an independent review into building regulations and fire safety which has been commissioned after the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. The review will urgently consider the effectiveness of the current building and fire regulations and how they are connected to compliance and enforcement issues. The review will also consider whether the Government’s large scale cladding system testing programme has found any potential systemic failures. It is the responsibility of the design and construction companies to make sure that buildings are built with the proper fire safety measures. However, it has been considered that the construction industry holds a general lack of competence that could lead to dangerous decisions being made and more lives taken in the future is nothing is done to change this.
