Murtagh, NM; Achkar, L; Roberts, A; (2016) "The people that no-one notices"? – The power of building control inspectors in sustainable construction. In: Proceedings of the 32nd ARCOM Annual Conference. Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM): Manchester, UK.

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Abstract

In England, national building regulations govern aspects of a building’s environmental performance. The profession of Building Control Inspector reviews designs and on-site construction in order to evaluate, and ultimately certify, compliance with the regulations, but little research has been carried out previously to investigate the role of these professionals in sustainable construction. A qualitative study was conducted comprising semi-structured interviews with 20 building inspectors and four key informants from professional bodies in England. The building inspectors tended to position their power as wholly derived from the regulations, thus constraining their contribution on sustainability to regulation enforcement. However, this stood in contrast to their descriptions of day-to-day activities which included providing advice and guidance, effective membership of design teams and a collaborative relationship with contractors/builders, architects and members of the public. Application of French and Raven’s (1959; Raven 1992) typology of social influence demonstrates that, in fact, other bases of power are available to, and are used by, building inspectors. The primary conclusion is that, with greater recognition of the varied bases of power available to them, building inspectors could extend their influence in daily working interactions to facilitate more sustainable construction.

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