Minutes:
“In November 2015 Broxtowe's Building Control Service was partnered with Erewash Borough Council in order to deliver a merged service. The drivers behind this were to improve service delivery, reduce costs and reduce support costs. Building Control is important because it:
· Helps check that buildings are built to building regulations standards,
· Protects people from cowboy builders and unsafe practices,
· Protects the public from dangerous structures,
· Helps keep build quality high
Would the Portfolio holder responsible agree with me that we should be receiving regular reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of this service? The last report submitted was 17 December 2018. In my recent experience the service provided by Erewash has not been up to the high standards residents deserve and therefore I request that an up to date performance report be submitted to the next full Council or Cabinet for consideration.
This should show as a minimum:
· The numbers of applications dealt with in the previous financial year;
· Processing times compared to targets,
· Formal complaints,
· Major incident reports,
· Staff training recommendations
· Performance against best practice promoted by the Building Control Performance Group of the MHCLG and
· Costing information.”
The Leader of the Council responded that Broxtowe is part of a four partner building control partnership along with Mansfield, Ashfield and Erewash. The service is managed by Erewash Borough Council under a service level agreement. Currently the Council makes no financial contribution towards the costs of operating the service
The information covered the period between 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, which included that 453 applications were received for Broxtowe which was 51% of market share. The joint Building Control service was preferred by more than half of applicants submitting a building control application when compared to the Approved Inspectors in the private sector.
It was stated that 65% of plans were checked within the statutory period of five weeks. Whilst the service will normally complete plan checks within five weeks in 100% of cases, or eight weeks if extension agreed with the applicant, 2022 was an exceptional year due to a surge in applications during May and June 2022, as applicants sought to avoid the consequences of legislative changes that came into force on 1 April. The service expects to return to 100% completion of plan checks within statutory periods in 2023/24.
One complaint was received via Erewash’s formal complaints procedure from a customer in the Broxtowe area regarding the building control service. Following initial investigation and review the complaint was not upheld.
The compliance regime for Building Control has changed significantly following new legislation introduced after the Grenfell fire disaster. This is having far reaching ramifications for the service including the requirement for all building Control officers to achieve certain levels of competence.
All building control officers will register with the Building Safety Regulator in October 2023. All building control officers are expected to complete their competency level validations by 1 April 2024 in accordance with the requirements of the Building Safety Regulator.Over the next few years, surveyors will continue with validation training as they progress through the competency levels to become specialist building control surveyors.
As soon as it is available a report will be presented to the Policy Overview Working Group followed by Cabinet in relation to the service review with proposals as to the future operation of the service for Councillors to consider.
In a supplementary question Councillor B C Carr asked that the lines of communication between Broxtowe and Erewash be examined.
The Leader responded that he was satisfied to accept the comments and reiterated that the topic would be reviewed.