£70m of funding allocated to address shortages in building control and fire engineering workforces

The Government has announced £70 million of funding to address shortages in the building control and fire engineering workforces. It will cover recruiting up to 700 new Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs), upskilling existing RBIs to Class 3H so that they can inspect HRBs, and developing higher education provision for fire engineers.

The three-year funding programme is a response to recommendations from the House of Lords regulatory committee for the government to increase capacity in the in the building control and fire engineering sectors, while both the Fire Engineers Advisory Panel and responses to the Building Control Independent Panel’s call for evidence have highlighted the importance of suitably qualified and trained professionals.

Shortages of qualified professionals in safety-critical roles in the built environment was also highlighted in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, with several recommendations concerning building control and fire engineering.

The funding is split between the Building Control (£55 million) and Fire Engineering (£15 million) sectors.