HBF Technical Conference 2016

HBF Technical Conference 2016
15 September 2016 - Austin Court, Birminghan

Past, present and future discussed at HBF Technical Conference
The housebuilding industry needs to produce "resilient" homes for the future, John Tebbit, md of Robust Details, said today (September 15).

Speaking at the Home Builders Federation's Technical Conference in Birmingham, Tebbit said that future homes should be "fail-soft", so that in the event of failure "it won't be catastrophic".
Also addressing skills in future scenarios, Tebbit said that changes in technology often led to "radical" changes in skills, and that as an industry "we need to address this".

He warned of a "digital tsunami" within housebuilding which was already underway. "If you think that housebuilding won't go digital, you're wrong. Digital will revolutionise this industry. How it does it is up for debate. The main thing it should do is remove unknowns."

Also speaking at the conference, Bob Ledsome, DCLG's head of Building Regulations and standards division, gave the state of play on Building Regulations and consultations, reminding the audience that the government was keeping energy standards under review following the decision to shelve the Code for Sustainable Homes last year. The review is now a requirement under the Housing and Planning Act.

On the effects of Brexit on regulations and standards, he said: "If something is required under an EU Directive, whilst the UK is part of the EU, it must be followed."

Reflecting on ten years of the NHBC Foundation, Neil Smith, NHBC's head of research and innovation, said that "sometime in the future" attention would turn back to zero carbon technologies. The Foundation had spent much time researching the capabilites of these.
He also noted a decline in recent years of the role of modern methods of construction. "But there has been a resurgence in interest in the past year or two, and the focus may turn to MMC following the EU referendum."

And Steve Wielebski, consultant at W.A Consultancy, tackled the contentious subject of new charging rules for the provision of water and sewerage infrastructure for new schemes. He also said: "Certain WaSCs [water and sewerage companies] continue to demand funding from developers for network capacity assessments. As a result: "There is clear evidence of developments being seriously delayed



DOWNLOAD THE AGENDA

Please contact the events team on 020 7960 1646 or events@house-builder.co.uk with any questions

HBF PLANNING CONFERENCE 

 HBF Planning Conference takes place the day before on Wednesday 14 September at Austin Court.  Special prices to attend both conferences are available by downloading the booking form.  Please click here to visit the HBF Planning Conference details. 

Agenda

Download the Delegate Questionnaire 

CLICK ON THE SPEAKER'S NAME TO DOWNLOAD THEIR PRESENTATION:
(please note that Oliver Novakovic's presentation is not available for download)

Dave Mitchell (conference chair)
Technical Director, HBF

Bob Ledsome 
Head of Building Regulations and Standards Division
DCLG

Neil Smith 
Head of Research and Innovation
NHBC 

John Tebbit 
Managing Director
Robust Details 

Steve Wielebski 
Consultant 
W.A Consultancy 

Oliver Novakovic
Technical and Innovation Director
Barratt Developments 

Paul Hutchens&Stuart Elmes
Solar Trade Association

Professor Phil Jones
Chair of Architectural Science
Welsh School of Architecture



DOWNLOAD THE AGENDA