Practice and theory differ in building control

The Building Control Act 1990 was introduced almost a quarter of a century ago. The act was introduced to establish our building control authorities and for the Minister of the Environment to draw up building regulations.

Since the introduction of the act, there has been many revisions to building regulations. The revisions mostly specified improvements which, if followed, would ensure our buildings would be better built, safer, more energy efficient and comfortable.

The act is perfect in theory. However in practice, compliance with its regulations is not adequately enforced on the building site. We thus have disasters such as Priory Hall to deal with.