On Wednesday 20th May, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a series of documents, including the Call for evidence: Strategy for the built environment professions, trades and occupations. This public call for evidence seeks detailed information about the challenges affecting how people and organisations work across the built environment sector, with a particular focus on competence and accountability. It will support the development of a broader strategy for the built environment workforce.

Scope of consultation and consequent policy

While any consequent policy development would apply in England only, MHCLG recognises that the built environment ‘system’ does not operate within the limits of a single jurisdiction. It is therefore seeking to understand any significant cross-border activity or relationships. MHCLG also remains committed to working with the Devolved Administrations to ensure that reform is aligned and coherent across the UK. There are some areas in scope of the forthcoming Professions Strategy that are not included in this call for evidence, particularly those areas where government has already committed to take specific actions in their post-Grenfell Inquiry Response, which included the licensing of Principal Contractors, regulation and education of fire engineers, and building control reform amongst others.

Structure and focus of the call for evidence

The call for evidence focuses on both the people and organisations working in the built environment and the overall system in which they operate: who does what, how work is undertaken, and how skills, knowledge, behaviours and accountability support safety, quality, sustainability, resilience, growth and productivity in practice. It is designed as an information-gathering exercise and does not present new policy proposals. The call for evidence is structured around the core stages of a building’s lifecycle (pre-design, design and specification, construction, occupation and maintenance), alongside a cross-cutting section on wider system themes. Stakeholders are encouraged to respond to their specialist area(s) and the cross-cutting section, and to provide real-life examples and quantitative evidence, while giving particular consideration to equality, diversity, inclusion and access as they relate to responses.

For each stage, evidence is sought on six key themes:

• Skills, knowledge, experience and capability, and the extent to which individuals and organisations are typically able to demonstrate necessary competence and capability.

• The key drivers of behaviours, conduct and culture, and how these influence performance and decision-making.

• The degree to which accountability and personal responsibility are understood and applied by individual and corporate actors at all stages of the building process.

• How the existing system infrastructure for education and training, competence, regulation and oversight work to incentivise and enable appropriate ways of working.

• Critical interdependencies across the building lifecycle, including how different roles work together and the way in which actions or choices taken at one stage can influence or constrain subsequent choices and behaviours downstream

• Practical actions for reform and the main barriers to success.

Next steps

The outcomes of this exercise will inform the development of a new strategy for the built environment professions, trades and occupations (the Professions Strategy), expected to be published in Spring 2027, alongside a consultation on those final proposals. This will include detailed design of a new framework for regulation, oversight and enforcement for those working in the built environment, alongside other non-regulatory levers to support competence, culture and personal responsibility. Additionally, MHCLG will formally consult on specific legislative measures within scope of the full Professions Strategy later in 2026.

APS response

APS is currently reviewing the call for evidence in detail and will prepare a response by the deadline of 12th August 2026. APS will seek input from its members for the response, so please keep an eye on our news channels and the weekly updates for further information on engagement activity. Alongside its formal response, APS will continue to feed into MHCLG’s rolling engagement programme. We will also share the details of the two public webinars MHCLG will hold in early June to discuss the call for evidence and respond to questions. The Call for evidence can be found here.