I suggest that the Grenfell report of September 2024 is the most important and helpful lid to be taken off our building industry. Take a look at volume 4, part 6 of the Phase 2 report. It tells you about the very ordinary behaviour of architects, builders, subcontractors and sub-subcontractors. That’s a narrower focus than the whole report. But it gets to grips with how we do the work on site. Oh, and let me say this: none of it will come as a surprise to you experienced builders.

And also let me say that if you think that getting a builder to design and build is a good idea (as I once did), then abandon that thought. Grenfell tells me that it’s not wise to place contracts with folk who build and then lumber the otherwise good builder with design too. Stop it.

JCT message: scrap the JCT Design and Build Contract documents. Sling them out of your stable as a mark of respect for the report and for the 72 dead. That’s only one plea; there are more, but that’s an easy and goodwill start. I mean it: ban design and build building contracts.

My theme is simple. The design, the specification, the materials, even the method of working is the job of those who are up to their ears with professional gongs that tell us they are qualified to design buildings. It takes ages to become an architect, an engineer, a professional. Ages because the job is ever so complicated. They have to know all the inside track of regulations, performance, standards, risks. The designer even has to know – and say in the specification – how the assembly of the item is to be carried out.

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