Launch of the Joint Position Statement 2022

Dr Duncan Philips FRICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), Nicola Lauder MRICS (Historic England) & James Berry (PCA) take to the stage to launch the highly significant and much anticipated joint statement: “Investigation of moisture and its effects on traditional buildings - Principles and Competencies”.

For the first time, heritage, surveying and industry have come together and agreed the skills and knowledge on how dampness in traditional buildings should be surveyed, the competencies required in surveyors and contractors, principles around decisions to repair or not to repair, and the methodology that underpins solutions.

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Damp - it's never user error

The impacts of the Ombudsman report in October 2021, which told building professionals to do better for tenants, is still being digested. The report lays bare the improvements that are needed in the approach, accountability, and quality of damp management in tenanted homes. Significantly it exposes the all-too-common but misplaced assertion that tenants can be blamed for the dampness that blights their lives.

Challenges of Retrofitting Timber Buildings

The lowest carbon building is one that has already been built, but what are the challenges involved in refurbishing and retrofitting timber buildings? Dr John Williams of RSK will discuss the methods to appraise and assess structural timber in existing buildings and methods to remediate or strengthen the structural elements using a light-touch approach.

Is carbon net zero by 2050 the biggest threat to UK homes since the blitz, or a one-time opportunity to save the planet?

In this short presentation, PCA's CEO Steve Hodgson considers the positive and negative implications of the thermal improvements within buildings and homes, that we will all be tasked with delivering, surveying, and correcting in the years to come, and discusses whether we should embrace or flee from what’s to come.