My Lords, I was not expecting to speak after the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, so I will not comment on her proposals but will wait to hear other comments. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath, for introducing the first group of amendments, and very much endorse what he said about the sad victims of Grenfell. I was thinking that taking fire safety and buildings away from the fire brigade, as we did about a quarter of a century ago, may have had some sad and perverse effects. I refer to my interests in the register, notably as a non-executive director of Secure Trust Bank and as the owner of property that is sometimes rented out. I am also proud to be chair of the Built Environment Committee and to see distinguished colleagues here today.
I was sorry not to be able to speak in the long and interesting debate at Second Reading. However, I remind noble Lords of my involvement in the Fire Safety Bill and the concern I expressed very early on about the position of leaseholders and their inability to sell property because of the uncertainties and the problems with the dreaded EWS1 form, which we will come on to. I look forward to debating the Government’s recent package later, but for now I turn to the regulator and his or her functions, the subject of this group.
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I very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy of Southwark, in his remarks at Second Reading that it is right that the Health and Safety Executive should be the regulator. It has been much criticised in the past, not least on our side of the House when implementing EU regulations, but overall it does a good job. I have defended the HSE because it brought about a revolution in health and safety, notably in my childhood sector of farming, and has improved over the years in simplicity, professionalism and the ability to deal firmly but fairly with business.
I am less comfortable with the duties of the regulator set out in Part 2 of the Bill. Because of the background to the Bill, the duties are almost exclusively focused on imposing safety and are very light on the needs or expertise of the regulated. We must have balance in this life to avoid perverse effects. I am worried that the new regulator and the many overlapping provisions in this detailed Bill could have a chilling effect on housebuilding. This is at a time when my committee, in a unanimous report, agreed on the need to increase the supply of housing of all tenures and to tackle the many barriers that already exist, which of course include the quality of buildings.
That is why I have tabled an amendment requiring the regulator’s activities to take account of three things. First, the needs of builders and technicians must be taken account of by the regulator; working with them appropriately, as the HSE does in other areas, is likely to produce better results. Secondly, account must be taken of business—the Committee will see that, as always, I have highlighted the needs of small business, which does not have the risk capital available to the larger developers and has already seen its share of the housing market collapse from 39% in 1988 to 10% today. Thirdly, account must be taken of the need to minimise bureaucracy, with clear and simple rules that all involved in business and in the skilled and less-skilled trades in
building safety can understand. This should be part of a framework that ensures the continuation of new building of all tenures, and indeed the repair and retrofitting of existing buildings—an issue close to the heart of the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, as I know from our discussions on this subject.
The tone of the debates so far—including what has been said by my noble friend the Minister, who has done so much to progress matters post Grenfell, for which I thank him—worries me. We must build in balance or we will live to regret the perverse effects of our good work on this Bill. I am not convinced that the provisions of Clause 3(2), on transparency, accountability, proportionality and consistency and the targeting at cases in which action is needed, or the committees in Clauses 9 and 10, will do enough. I hope that my noble friend will look at the matter again in the light of my comments.