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A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court has handed down judgment in URS Corporation Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd. The ruling is the first time that the Court has considered the Building Safety Act 2022, the legislative response to the building safety crisis that followed the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, as well as the Defective Premises Act 1972.
The appeal arises out of litigation between a developer, BDW (Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes etc.), and a provider of consultant engineering services, URS. Following the widespread identification of building safety issues after the Grenfell Tower fire, BDW discovered defects in two sets of high-rise developments which it had developed and received structural designs from URS.
The Supreme Court has dismissed each of URS’s grounds of appeal. The judgment is expected to make it easier to hold wrongdoers responsible for historic building safety defects to account, and to speed up the process of making homes safe for their residents.
Will Perry acted for the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (led by Sir James Eadie KC and others), who intervened on Ground 2. The Court relied heavily on those submissions when considering the background, structure and purpose of the Building Safety Act 2022.
The judgment is available here.