Members include former Hyde Housing CEO and ex-housing minister
The government has announced the appointment of five members to its Building Control Independent Panel.
This delivers on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendation outlined in its final report from September 2024. The panel will carry out a review of whether to change the way building control is conducted in England, including actions such as the removal of commercial interest from building control and transitioning to a national authority decision model.
The group of experts will be chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt, who led the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety post-Grenfell. She is currently serving as an adviser on building safety standards to the UK and Australian governments.
She will be joined by Elaine Bailey, Nick Raynsford, Ken Rivers and David Snowball.
Bailey is the former chief executive of 120,000-home Hyde Housing and now holds several non-executive directorships in the sector. This includes at McCarthy & Stone Shared Ownership, a for-profit registered provider of later living homes.
Meanwhile, Raynsford was a Labour MP for 24 years, holding positions as minister of state for housing and planning, minister for construction, minister for London and minister of state for local and regional government. He is currently a member of the New Towns Taskforce working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
Rivers is a non-executive director at government agency the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). He spent 38 years working at Shell and has previously chaired the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations Strategic Forum.
Snowball is the former acting chief executive of the HSE and now sits on the MHCLG’s Industry Safety Steering Group alongside Hackitt.
Minister for Building Safety, Alex Norris, said: “The appointment of this independent panel is a significant step in our response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
“We need a building control system that puts safety first and supports our plans to accelerate remediation. It must also help to deliver 1.5 million safe, high-quality homes over this Parliament, and be equipped to meet the demands of a modern construction sector.
“Their work will play a vital role in shaping a safer, more accountable building industry, and I look forward to receiving the panel’s recommendations as they take this important work forward.”
No comments yet