A new survey of LABC’s 3,000 building standards surveyors has shown more than two thirds of local authority building control teams have surveyors with the top level competencies to deal with higher risk and complex buildings.

LABC has established that there are 1,096 local authority building standards surveyors with these competencies across England and Wales.

The survey also found that the vast majority (72%) of these highly skilled surveyors are able to accommodate projects outside their own authority to support other teams’ client work or provide peer reviews.

The survey comes as the first pilot group of local building standards surveyors passed their accredited Fire Safety Specialist Validations – including surveyors in Manchester where there are many high rise buildings. LABC, in association with the Institution of Fire Engineers, is carrying out a full assessment of all its high level surveyors to produce an ‘LABC Fire Safety Specialist Licence to Practice’ which will include annual mandatory fire safety training. The results from this first group of surveyors to be assessed are being used to confirm the certification papers and the competency validation programme.

Commenting, LABC Deputy Managing Director, Lorna Stimpson said, “We’ve been working on identifying and accrediting the skills of our teams for more than 18 months as part of our ISO backed Quality Management System. I’m delighted that we have so many very highly skilled surveyors and have identified capacity that means they can provide a service for higher risk building projects nationwide.

“With more than 1,000 highly specialised surveyors, the public sector is more than capable of taking on the task of surveying the higher risk residential buildings identified in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report. Our surveyors provide full geographical coverage and are able to peer-review each other’s work. Clients, other professionals and other regulatory contributors will have complete reassurance that they’re dealing with surveyors with proven and measured competency. LABC will continue to invest in the skills and competencies of our surveyors to ensure that they are fully capable of implementing all the recommendations contained within Dame Judith’s report.”