Monday evening’s Channel 4 Dispatches ‘Britain’s Nightmare New Homes’ painted a pretty damning image of new private for sale house building. A Parliamentary Debate earlier this summer equally highlighted problems that can be faced by new homeowners. Putting forward the argument for Approved Inspectors for all new build housing the Rt Hon Maria Miller MP commented ‘Constituents are facing dreadful defects in expensive new homes that clearly do not comply with building regulations.’
Following this Parliamentary Debate, the ICWCI have contributed to the call for evidence and produce a report, representing the views and feedback from its members across England. This reports cites “The current general perception is that the industry has become progressively management orientated, and Contractors increasingly face the dilemma posed by the quality-cost-time conundrum, a challenge that is exacerbated by the fall in skill and resource levels, knowledge gaps and general poor standards of workmanship.”
Furthermore, the report states “Clients and Developers for their part, demand value for money, cost optimization and projects that are delivered right first time. These issues have resulted in numerous defects (many of a repetitive nature), and have on too many occasions affected overall new build housing quality.”
Rund Partnership has a growing team of Clerk of Works, who are seeing an increased demand for their service and expertise. Whilst predominantly commissioned in the residential sector, our team ensures a high build quality throughout the life of any scheme on which we are instructed. They monitor defects throughout the defects liability period / rectification period, only signing off the making good defects certificate once our client is satisfied that all outstanding items have been remedied. This is coordinated by our aftercare team to manage the process to a satisfactory conclusion.
Our Clerk of Works contributed to the evidence collated by the ICWCI. In the report, the ICWCI put forward the argument for independent third party inspectors, stating “We strongly believe that house buyers need the assurance that a qualified independent third party inspector is safeguarding their interests to ensure that their new home is built to a high quality and is value for ‘their’ money; however, over recent years these two factors have been questioned and have become a concern.
The housing industry is faced with increasing the supply of new housing, alongside the need to ensure good quality homes are built. Now is the time for construction industry collectively to address issues around quality and regular quality monitoring via independent inspection is one way to address these concerns.
Our team of Clerk of Works are experienced in their field and add value to each project on which they are involved. For more information contact, Colin Barrett ([email protected]) or or Rob Neilson ([email protected]) or call 020 7060 6221.