Building Quality Forum

Katie Thornburrow

On Friday July 23rd I held a forum to learn more about some of the most important issues around the quality of our homes.

We should all care about the quality of the buildings around us, whether they are council homes, private developments, schools, offices or civic buildings. Since the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017 attention has rightly focused on concerns about unsafe cladding, with serious concerns about the safety of people living in affected properties, the costs of replacing potentially dangerous materials, and who should pay.

Background

In addition to cladding issues, there are many questions about other aspects of building quality across the UK such as poorly fitted insulation leading to cold bridges and mould problems, poor plumbing and electrics, inadequate installation of fire prevention measures, which need to be be addressed, and many residents of new-build estates have raised them with developers.

As an experienced architect with my own practice and over thirty years experience designing and supervising building works, I believe that we need an open, public debate about these complicated issues, so that people can be better informed about the changes we need in building regulations, public policy, and accountability for our homes and the other buildings we use.

The building quality forum will bring together a range of experts in different areas with a panel of elected representatives and space for public questions, as a contribution to this vital debate. It aims to bring these issues to wider attention and also ensure that councillors and others are properly informed as they make decisions around policies and planning issues that affect building quality, and that they can deal more effectively with issues raised by residents.

Who WAs There

The panel was made up of elected representatives from across the region

Local AuthorityPositionName
Cambridge CityMPDaniel Zeichner
City CouncillorKatie Thornburrow
City CouncillorKatie Porrer
City CouncillorSam Davies
City CouncillorPhilipps Slatter
South Cambridgeshire DCDistrict CouncillorTumi Hawkins
District CouncillorHeather Williams
Cambridgeshire CountyCounty CouncillorLucy Nethsingha

They heard presentations and asked questions of representatives from a range of organisations

OrganisationRepresentative
Quality Issues – HousescanHarry Yates
Cladding – LondonCAG / Manchester CladiatorsDave Richards
Giles Grover
Cladding – IpswichCAGAlex Dickin
Leasehold & freehold abuses Leasehold Knowledge PartnershipMartin Boyd
Westminster PerspectiveDaniel Zeichner MP
Building Control – 3Cs BCHeather Jones
Fire AuthorityWayne Pringle

Watch the Event

The recording of the event is now on my YouTube Channel

Introductions

Cladding issues

Cladding Action Groups

Leasehold Issues

Residents’ Perspectives

A Westminster Perspective

Building Control Perspective

Fire Service Perspective

Summary and Close