A building-control firm has gone under after its application to be listed by the new regulator failed, leaving projects in the lurch.
PWC Building Control Services issued a statement saying it had gone into voluntary liquidation after the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) rejected its application to the new building-control register, leaving it unable to carry out its functions.
The Northamptonshire-based firm said it would send initial notice cancellations for all of its projects to clients and local authorities before 28 August.
A statement on its website reads: “The work that PWC was undertaking has ceased immediately, therefore please contact your local authority building control department.
“You are likely to have to make a new (Regularisation) application to the local authority for the building work.”
The firm added that liquidators would soon be in touch with creditors about whether they might claim back money owed. One consultancy told Construction News that it faces losing £55,000 in unpaid fees.
When an initial notice is cancelled, the project usually reverts to local authority control, meaning local building-control departments – especially in the firm’s Northamptonshire catchment – are likely to be faced with an influx of work.
PWC is understood to not have been working on any higher-risk buildings, which would have required projects to be paused mid-construction, the BSR told CN.
The company had been sanctioned by the previous building-control regulator, CICAIR, in January 2023. The firm received a warning in relation to its “inadequate standard of monitoring and reporting” and “inadequate standard of documenting”.
The 24-month sanction was still in effect when PWC applied in February to the new register, set up as part of a package of post-Grenfell reforms. Firms were required to certify as a Registered Building Control Approver with the BSR by 6 April or lose the right to carry out their functions.
Despite a deadline extension to July for individual building inspectors to register with the new system, amid fears that local authorities would be unable to perform their duties, the deadline was not extended for private building control firms.
Calls to PWC’s head office went unanswered. Local Authority Building Control – an organisation that represents local authority building-control teams – was unavailable for comment.
