HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF BUILDING CONTROL IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Aims and Objectives To have an understanding of the history and development of the Building Regulations

Statutory control affecting siting and construction of buildings has been exercised by governing bodies for many hundreds of years. Even as far back as Roman Times.

Records show that control on land owners to protect wealth and life was in existence in 1189.

Controls put in place were mainly in response to tragedies - Serious outbreaks of disease (cholera and dysentery) Serious fires involving lost of life

Great fire of London The and Great Fire of London in 1666 was the most single significant event which has shaped the legislation of today. http://europeantrips.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/The-Great-Fire.jpg

After the Great Fire legislation was put in place to prevent fire spread between the replacement buildings. "District Surveyors" were appointed to administer these controls.

Note : the rest of the UK was slow to follow this example, however, large cities such as Manchester, Birmingham etc. did eventually develop their own control systems and appoint surveyors.

The massive expansion of the population within the urban areas in the 19th century together with the poor sanitation, drainage and water supplies led to very serious outbreaks of disease. Child mortality was extremely high.

Public Health Act 1875 This was the first Act of Parliament which specifically covered safety, fire prevention, health and sanitation.

The Public Health Act 1875 gave power to Local Authorities to make "local Bye Laws" controlling building construction.

In practice this was unsatisfactory due to the fact that every Local Authority had their own set of Local Bye Laws which differed from other Local Authorities. It became difficult for builders to work to differing standards.

The Public Health Act 1875 was amended by the Public Health Act 1936 which allowed Local Authorities to make their own Bye Laws but these had to be based on "Model Bye Laws" which were issued by Government. This improved the Building Control system but still was far from satisfactory.

In the 1950's 1400 sets of Local Bye Laws were in existence all varying in detail. Designers and Builders were faced with working to many varying standards for each separate project. These Model Bye Laws remained in operation until the revision of the Public Health Act in 1965.

The Public Health Act 1965 made provision for the preparation of the first Building Regulations, these were introduced in 1966 for England and Wales.

Note : Inner London, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own Regulations which are different.

The 1965 Building Regulations were amended many times and in 1972 a new metric version of the Regulations were published.

Ronan Point A gas explosion, which caused the collapse of the building http://www.failedarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/original-830x1137.jpg

Once again the 1972 Building Regulations were amended many times over the years, mainly associated with energy conservation and in response to serious disasters.

In 1976 all the amendments were consolidated into a new set of Building Regulations.

The Building Regulations had a good record for producing safe buildings and few serious failures had been experienced compared with systems in other Countries.

Radical Changes by the Government to the Building Control System The Government decided to review the system of Building Control mainly in response to criticism from Construction the Industry and Professions

Criticisms included - Too bureaucratic Regulations written in legal language Inflexible Inhibit innovation Impose unnecessary costs

A Government review was initiated in 1979 which advocated scrapping the existing system and replacing it with an entirely new system that - is simple to operate is self financing allows maximum self regulation has minimum government involvement

This review brought about a new Act of Parliament namely the - The Building Act 1984 This new act brought together all previous legislation relating to building. Over 46 Acts were affected.

Main characteristics - Gave power to make new regulations (The current Building Regulations) Increased penalties for contraventions Gave power to charge fees for Building Control services Made provision for private companies to take on Building Control work.

A basic knowledge of Building Regulations and Building Control procedures is essential for all construction professionals INTERIOR DESIGN