National House Building Council

National House Building Council (NHBC)

Type	Checking standards of 19,500 registered house builders
Industry	House Building
Founded	1936
Headquarters	Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England
Key people	Sir John Carter (Chairman), Imtiaz Farookhi (CEO) Directors: Stewart Baseley, Ian Davis, Peter Foster, Sir John Harman, Malcolm Harris, Sir Graham Hart, Tim Hough, Sandra Kelly, Dame Yvonne Moores DBE, Robin Nicholson CBE, Dr David Smith OBE, Richard Tamayo, Richard Werth
Revenue	£28,661,000 GBP (2005)
Employees	1,000 staff including inspectors and 80 Members of the Council
Website	www.nhbc.co.uk

The National House Building Council (NHBC) was originally set up as the National House Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in the United Kingdom in 1936. The name changed in 1973.^{[citation needed]}

As a Registered Housebuilder under the voluntary scheme, houses were inspected during building, buyers were covered by a 2 year warranty against major defects, and against the insolvency of the builder. By 1963, 26% of all housing was built by Registered Housebuilders.

In 1964 and 1965 changes were introduced, including the extension of the warranty to 10 years.^{[citation needed]}

1967 saw the upgrading of the NHBRC's standards, particularly in the provision of power outlets, kitchen design and space heating, drawing on the recommendations of the Parker Morris Committee. By the end of 1970, 92% of new homes were built by NHBRC members.^{[citation needed]}

Under the Building Act 1984 the NHBC set up a subsidiary company (NHBC Building Control Services Ltd) to become an approved inspector for verifying that buildings were built in accordance to the UK's national building regulations.^{[citation needed]}

New builds

On new builds the NHBC inspector carries out a series of "Key stage" inspections. This is to ensure the properties are built to the standards of both the NHBC and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The key stage are Foundations, drainage, superstructure i.e. brickwork etc. pre-plaster and pre-handover to the customer. There is an additional inspection on apartments/flats of the roof construction.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to the building control of home construction and the warranty for home-owners, NHBC also has services to its builder members, such as health and safety, training, sustainability (such as Energy Performance Certificates, EcoHomes and the Code for Sustainable Homes), and acoustic and air-leakage testing.

Criticism

The NHBC was criticised on a 2010 edition of the BBC consumer television programme Watchdog for failing to repair homes due to incorrect surveying of problem properties by relevant professionals, and thus failing to either compensate owners financially or fix any problems promptly, for new build properties under their warranty.^[1]

See also

• EcoHomes
• Energy efficiency in British housing
• Construction Industry Council
• Gas protection

References

1. ^ NHBC - customers not thrilled with their build..., reference date 28 September 2010

External links

• http://www.nhbc.co.uk