Your focus is to direct the BBA to drive industry safety and quality. How does it do this?

Independent third-party product assessment and certification underpins safety and quality, helps identify risk and demonstrates fitness-for-purpose. Quality is at the heart of the BBA’s role and ambition in the construction industry and is essential to safety in the built environment. We encourage collaboration and learning from other industries and individuals. Tragedies like Grenfell and others have highlighted how vital it is that specifiers are able to make better informed decisions about the products they are choosing and that the quality of installation should also be a priority. Important lessons have been learnt that can offer a blueprint for future improvements – we’re committed and remain committed to closing the quality gaps that exist in the construction industry.

 What role does the BBA play in ensuring quality in innovation?

The beauty of innovation is that when you meet it, you are challenged by it. It challenges the way you assess products and think about quality and safety standards. It exercises our skills and demands us to be agile and adaptable to the needs and movements of our industry, understanding the underpinning principles and regulatory drivers. At the BBA we strive to understand and support innovation and emerging technologies. We also embrace and drive internal innovation in our systems and delivery. By working closely with the industry, the sector and its stakeholders, we test, assess and certify innovative solutions, providing confidence to specifiers, contractors, and regulators. And when you look at innovation in our space, you realise that it can only be achieved if the entire construction industry plays a team game; one where every link in the construction supply chain works together to enable the new – safely. If anything, innovation shows us time and time again, the importance of partnership – and that’s where the BBA is proud to play its part.

How does the BBA encourage collaboration with external stakeholders to improve quality in the industry?

Collaboration is an underpinning principle of our delivery and approach, which includes working across the sector and with its stakeholders as to how certified products are used. But working together doesn’t just stop at the business of today – it’s about the safety of people and places; we believe that the power of working together sets the foundation for generations to come.

That is why at the BBA, we are proactive about improving industry standards through several key initiatives. An example of this is the establishment of an Industry Working Group and our participation in a number of working groups and industry committees. These groups bring together stakeholders from across the sector, including manufacturers, contractors, regulatory bodies, and industry experts, to discuss and address common issues and challenges. This collaborative approach ensures diverse input into the development of standards and certification processes.

Through these collaborative efforts across the sector, the BBA ensures that its standards and certification processes are not only technically sound but also reflective of the collective expertise and needs of the industry, users and society generally. This approach helps to drive continuous improvement and innovation within the construction sector. We all have our part to play.

We strive to understand our past and learn from it by being active members of the communities we interface with; we take the opportunity to do all we can to listen and ensure that we are sustainably meeting our duties and the expectations that the industry places on us.

I am looking forward to engaging with the sector even more, to ensure the BBA delivers real value in terms of building quality, safety and performance

How does the BBA use educational initiatives to enhance industry awareness of safety and quality standards?

BBA takes part in a number of training initiatives and educational resources, some of which we offer ourselves, to industry professionals, to help them understand and comply with the latest industry standards, third party certification and best practices. Since joining the BBA, we’ve implemented several new initiatives to help drive industry quality and safety, working in direct response to market feedback. We recently launched ‘Navigating 3rd Party Certification: Using BBA Agrément to build with confidence’ a RIBA-accredited CPD. This CPD aims to help specifiers interpret information within a BBA Agrément Certificate and understand the value of third-party certification, ensuring they have the knowledge to choose the best products for their projects and thus reduce risk. We encourage industry-academia collaboration, recently beginning work with Swansea University on key aspects. We’re always keen to interact with people working in the sector and so we take part in industry steering groups where we can both listen and make a greater impact and for the industry to understand the world of 3rd party certification even more, and all that it entails.

What are the main challenges facing the construction industry, and how does the BBA aim to address them?

In my view, the main challenges facing the industry are, and remain centred around quality in design and delivery, and the competency of our professionals delivering to society. These are never single-dimension solutions, as delivery will always strive to maintain and drive productivity. A new trading environment with the EU has created further complexity to navigate for all involved in the sector. I see the BBA’s role is to play our part in working to achieve and bring clarity where we can.

What is your future outlook for how the BBA will continue to contribute to the quality and safety of the sector?

The BBA is privileged to support the sector and has a continued crucial role in providing rigour in its processes and routines, providing third party product certification, underpinned by testing, audit and inspection, which is so important for the quality and safety of construction products and systems. BBA certification is a mark of quality which is widely recognised. We encourage and rally feedback from stakeholders on how we can support them, across the sector.  Rapid developments mean that we too have to keep learning and, most importantly in my view, keep listening.  You will see us making all efforts to interact with the sector, to gather as much learning and insight as possible, but also make connections and facilitate interactions where we can.

We’re committed to helping enable the construction industry as it transforms, with a foundation of robust and rigorous third-party product assessment practices. We want to do our part in helping everyone understand the work that we do and learn what we can do to improve. In a time of uncertainty and market change, we understand that we can provide continuity and assurance.

Advancements in building materials, such as new insulation products, smart building materials, and advanced composites, require rigorous testing and certification. The BBA’s expertise can and will contribute and underpin assessing these new products and ensuring they are fit for purpose.

The BBA’s contributions to the construction industry will be shaped by our ability to adapt to industry trends, technological advancements, and regulatory changes, whilst maintaining a focus on sustainability and innovation. We will support the development of a better quality, safer, more efficient, and more sustainable built environment where we can.