After the Grenfell Tower fire exposed inadequacies in the process of product certification, the British Board of Agr茅ment (BBA) came up with a plan.
BBA鈥檚 answer to the problems identified was to create Agr茅ment Plus as a more rigorous (and thus more expensive) accreditation process specifically for products to be used in residential tower blocks (high risk residential buildings, or HRRBs in the jargon).
The BBA mark shows that products have received third party certification of meeting relevant norms and standards. Agr茅ment Plus would have introduced a new higher level of certification. This regime would have seen products with an Agr茅ment Plus certificate attested as fit for use in HRRBs whereas products with just an Agr茅ment certificate would not be.
The BBA launched a consultation on this plan in March but found that the overarching view of consultees was that a two-tier 鈥楢gr茅ment鈥� and 鈥楢gr茅ment Plus鈥� approach was not an appropriate way forward.
鈥淭he preference was that the format of the Agr茅ment certificates should be developed so that fitness (or lack of it) for use in HRRBs is clearly identified,鈥� said BBA technical director Bill Hewlett. 鈥淲e feel a modular style of certificate can achieve this.鈥�
The BBA said that its next step was likely to be setting up an industry liaison group of certificate users to talk about what to do now.
BBA鈥檚 15-week consultation on Agr茅ment Plus collected more than 10,000 views from architects, specifiers, warranty providers, insurers, construction managers, funders, building control officers and industry regulators.
Bill Hewlett said that he was surprised by the level of concerns expressed about poor workmanship and over-enthusiastic cost cutting, and the threat they pose to building quality and safety.
鈥淩isks from poor workmanship and unchecked value engineering were on our radar to investigate,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut the strength of feeling about them came as a surprise and is an important finding.鈥�
He added: 鈥淭hese questions of workmanship control and uncontrolled value engineering warrant industry leadership attention, and clearly a focus on domestic RMI [repair, maintenance and improvement] is called for.鈥�
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