Construction: Materials
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help ensure that innovative UK building products are approved for use in a timely manner.
Answered by Alex Norris
The Construction Products Green Paper, published earlier this year, set out a range of potential measures for reform. This included proposals which seek to encourage the adoption of new technologies and methodologies that promote safety and sustainability in construction, simultaneously facilitating growth. We also sought views through the green paper on ways to support and encourage innovation in the built environment by ensuring that the safety and regulation of emerging technologies is robust enough to assure a safer future for the built environment. We also consider that there is a need for greater public sector testing and research capacity to support regulatory activity and research safety issues.
We are now analysing responses and will set out the government’s initial response, and our next steps for long term reform.
More broadly, all building works need to meet the functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2010 regardless of the products or methods used. The functional requirements are product agnostic, allowing designers the freedom to innovate and design new ways to comply.
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