Wates hosts Dame Judith Hackitt for interview on championing culture of quality and safety
Wates hosts Dame Judith Hackitt for interview on championing culture of quality and safety
On 10th February, we paused activity at all our construction sites to stream to our teams an interview between Dame Judith Hackitt and our Construction Managing Director, Mark Tant, on the importance of the Building Safety Act and supporting a culture of responsibility.
Dame Judith chaired the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety commissioned by the Government following the Grenfell Tower fire.
Her subsequent ‘Building A Safer Future’ report is credited with spearheading the introduction of the Building Safety Act one of the most transformative industry regulations for decades, designed to change how we build and maintain tall structures’ fire safety measures.
We’re committed to making sure all our people, consultants and supply chain partners recognise the significance of building safe buildings and ensuring that Grenfell was a lesson that only needs learning once. It was an honour to host Dame Judith and hear from her directly.
She visited our Canada Water site, to be interviewed about her findings by our Construction MD, Mark Tant and answer a Q&A from our people and Sir James Wates.
This interview was centred around the requirements of the Building Safety Act, quality assurance, traceability and the Golden Thread, and the moral and professional obligation on us all to protect the lives of the people who use our finished buildings.
The construction industry carries an enormous amount of responsibility, providing the offices, homes, schools and hospitals that make up a society.
It is time for the industry to own this, and ensure everyone who works on a structure knows it is their absolute duty to provide buildings that people can trust and feel safe in.
It’s good to see that Wates is taking the initiative to push this message directly to all of its employees to strengthen a culture where safety and quality are intrinsically linked to moral responsibilities.
We need industry to lead on what is right not wait for regulatory requirements to dictate the lowest acceptable standard.”
Dame Judith Hackitt
The Building Safety Act represents one of the biggest legislative changes to how we build in years.
We have always prided ourselves on delivering high quality buildings safely not only for those working on site, but for the people we’re building them for.
This is a responsibility that falls to absolutely everyone, and we need to make sure that regardless of role or level, all our people understand the importance of this Act and their impact of their work on the world.
It was a true privilege to host Dame Judith at our Canada Water site and I thank her and British Land, for their support in our ongoing commitment to promote quality across the construction industry.”
Mark Tant
Managing Director, Wates Construction
Prior to her speech, Dame Judith toured our Canada Water site, part of British Land’s 53-acre Masterplan where we are delivering the first of its high-rise residential apartments.
Canada Water is one of the capital’s biggest mixed-use regeneration projects and will create the first new town centre in London for 50 years.
It has a future-looking vision that includes a new high street and town square, one million sq ft of leisure, retail, education, and sports facilities, circa 3,000 net-zero homes (including 35% affordable), up to two million sq. ft. of workspace catering to 20,000 workers, and 12 acres of new green space to enhance health and wellbeing.
