Compliance Plus Customer
Opinion Research
Two Studies from the Building Control Alliance
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Agenda
 Introductions
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Paul Everall, Chief Executive, LABC
Nigel Barr, Chair ACAI
Amanda Evans, Lychgate
Paul Wilkins, ACAI
Philip Hammond, LABC
 Agenda
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Overview – Phil Hammond, LABC
Customer Opinion Research - Amanda Evans, Lychgate
Compliance Actions - Phil Hammond, LABC & Nigel Barr, ACAI
Questions and discussions
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Introduction
Why research?
 You asked for “evidence” that building control ‘works’,
‘adds value’ and isn’t an unnecessary cost burden on
industry or tax payers
 Too many interest groups recycle anecdotes and opinions
 DCLG ‘Consultation’ and Red Tape Challenge
 We wanted professional independent research
 LABC and ACAI want to understand more about our
customers and the delivery of our work in order to adapt
and improve
 Commitment to Alan Crane to bolster BCPSAG’s work
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Introduction
Research plan
Project
When
Customer opinion research
done
Compliance actions survey
done
Professional resources, quals, experience & training survey Spring 2012
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BCPSAG – new Performance Indicators
Spring 2012
Enforcement - regularisations, reversions & prosecutions
2012/13
Consumer awareness
2013
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Introduction
Private Preview
 You are seeing this first
 All data has been held back and there has been
no PR
 We will be briefing our respective members and
issuing press releases through the Building
Control Alliance
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Customer Opinion Research
Amanda Evans
My session this morning:
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Lychgate – profile
Building Control customer opinion research brief
Methodology and sample
Key findings
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Customer Opinion Research
Lychgate
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Independent B2B research consultancy est. 1986
Specialists in building industry (90% of turnover)
Members of MRS and CIM
Provision of high quality feedback from all levels in the industry,
including Clients, Architects, Engineers, Main Contractors,
Housebuilders, Housing Associations and Specialist subcontractors
 Clients are product manufacturers, service providers and trade
associations including Lafarge, Hanson, British Gypsum,
Construction Products Association, NHBC, Considerate
Constructors Scheme and Constructionline
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Customer Opinion Research
Research objectives
 Identify customer opinions:
 Perceptions of building control and its value
 Contribution to projects and benefits it brings
 Experience of the building control system
 Satisfaction with the building control system and
Building Regulations
 Consideration of alternatives
 Improvements required
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Customer Opinion Research
Sample and methodology
 Statistically valid sample balanced to reflect different
segments of business users
 Sample sourced independently by Lychgate,
representative nationally to reflect regional construction
output
 In-depth telephone interviews, lasting on average 16 mins
 Identified and interviewed those interacting with building
control… decision-makers and users
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Respondent profile segments
Developers & other end clients
Developers
18
Other property clients
13
Top 100 firms
21
Medium/small architects
52
Freelance plan drawers
35
Top 15, at regional level
27
Other top 100
17
Small house builders
64
Top 100
43
Regional/specialist contractors
56
Small builders
Small builders
142
Specialists
Loft conversion
16
Roofing
13
Replacement windows
7
Fit out
17
Architects & plan drawers
House builders
Contractors
Total
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Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – Benefits of Building Control
 92% believe they benefit from an independent and
impartial third party inspection service
 Their ‘depth’ of belief in this is high too. On a scale of 1 10 (with 10 high), 89% rate the benefit of building control
to their projects at 7 or more, with similar results across
all groups
 Building Regulations also viewed positively – 49% did not
have any issues with the system
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Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – Benefits of Building Control
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High customer attachment to building control system
 94% feel it reassures clients that the job is carried out properly
 70% feel it reduces risk
Ultimately to what extent does the involvement of Building Control
help you to achieve the following?
1 Does not help at all
2 to 4
5 to 6
Ultimately helps you satisfy clients that
2%4%
the job has been carried out properly…
7 to 9
56%
Helps you achieve compliance (540) 2%6%
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29%
64%
Gives you the opportunity to discuss a
5% 16%
solution which you would prefer (534)
Helps to find a solution which you may
1% 14%
not have considered (536)
38%
63%
Improves the standards of buildings and
1%
5% 12%
their performance (539)
Reduces your risk on projects (539) 2%10%
10 Helps / contributes a lot
18%
64%
18%
25%
15%
53%
17%
52%
8%
Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – A challenging process?
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Just over 3 in ten considered it to be a “smooth” process, but 4 in ten thought
it could be “challenging”
Would you say the Building Control process is...?
But regardless of whether they thought it smooth or
challenging, 97% believe the system is worthwhile to
achieve safe and compliant buildings
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Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – third party assessment and self certification
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93% believe it is important that the building industry should use independent
checks rather than self-certification
When asked which they would prefer for their own company, 80% would
rather have third party assessment than self certification
Specialist trades expressed a slightly stronger preference for self certification
(but still only 27% would prefer)
In your opinion, how important is it to the industry
to have independent third parties checking
compliance with Building Regulations?
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Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – Service Level Satisfaction
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Satisfaction with the service is high with average scores of 8 out of 10
These scores are high compared with those achieved in other building industry
sectors (based on other research conducted in the last 3 years in the building
industry)
Only 6% could be described as ‘dissatisfied’ (gave scores of 6 or less)
The main issue is dissatisfaction with response times and technical consistency
between building control bodies and individual surveyors
How satisfied are you with the Building Control Surveyor?
Average scores out of 10
Acceptable level
of satisfaction
1
Very dissatisfied
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7
10
Very satisfied
Customer Opinion Research
Key Findings – Business Customer Priorities
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Business users of building control want a service that is / provides:
 Co-operative and helpful - 8.0
 Timely advice & service - 7.7
 Professional - 8.3
 Responsive - 7.7
 Flexible - 7.4
 Offers advice proactively - 7.4
 Pre-empts problems - 7.0
 Is part of the project team - 7.4
 Gives good quality technical advice - 8.0
 80% made suggestions for improvement, including “consistency” and “better
response” – not a new system
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Customer Opinion Research
Final thoughts
 Customers value building control and the building regulations system
 Satisfaction with the Building Control service is high compared with
other building industry services / products
 Low dissatisfaction amongst users (contractors etc) and end
customers (developers / building owners)
 Very high commitment to using an independent third party check
 Those preferring self certification are in the minority – even amongst
specialist contractors
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Next Survey
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National Compliance Actions Survey
The largest ever building control study
 Objective to measure daily work - instructions given to
clients on their plans, on-site or through extra email or
telephone conversations
 Both public and private sector building control
 20 working days – the whole of November
 A good ‘average’ working month
 248 building control bodies responded in total
 69% of LABC’s network
 65% of ACAI members
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National Compliance Actions Survey
Big Numbers
 An ‘average’ working month produced 277,046 compliance
interventions on 198,338 projects
 Interventions are instructions during plan checking or
inspections
 This does not mean an ‘average’ of 1.4 because most
projects run for a number of months so the total of
interventions on a project would be greater
 The average duration circa 4 months
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National Compliance Actions Survey
Part
A Structure
55,538
B Fire
54,736
L Energy
38,899
H Drainage
23,796
C Moisture
22,845
M Access
14,863
F Ventilation
14,809
K Falls
11,184
P Electrics
9,754
E Sound
8,791
J Flues
7,736
G Hygiene
5,991
N Glazing
4,801
D Toxics
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Total Interventions
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592
National Compliance Actions Survey
Safe to Extrapolate
 67% response rate from the ACAI and LABC network gives
a sound statistical base
 100% interventions x 12 months = 4.9 million interventions
p.a.
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National Compliance Actions Survey
Are all interventions important?
 We asked for a simple classification
 28% were deemed of “High” importance – an urgent, major
issue
 39% were “Moderate” – would cause issues if not rectified
 32% classified “Low” – not up to standard, but not a major
health, safety or performance issue
 So two-thirds of interventions prevented immediate or
future problems
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National Compliance Actions Survey
What have we learned?
1. Compliance actions are far more extensive than even we
thought
2. Building control bodies apply equal effort to interventions
that are not life threatening -- two-thirds of interventions
are made for important reasons
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Thank You
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