SBD National Building Approval saves developers time and money

SBD, the national police crime prevention initiative, have been working to incorporate security into the built environment.

For almost the last 30 years, Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative, has been working to incorporate security in the built environment and local communities – adapting our guidance to keep pace with changing patterns of criminal behaviour. In this article, we look at one of SBD’s latest products and why we are increasingly winning the support of household name developers around the country.
Secured by Design (SBD) is constantly seeking to find new ways to promote security in new build developments and major refurbishments to achieve sustainable reductions in crime to enable people to live in a safer society.

Our latest scheme, SBD National Building Approval (SBD NBA), helps development companies and organisations commissioning building work, like housing associations, to meet the security requirements contained in the Building Regulations – and by doing so, SBD NBA assists Local Authorities too.

Since the launch of this scheme, SBD has worked with developers and housing associations to register a total of 3,453 buildings over 46 building sites in 11 of the 43 UK Police Force areas around the country.

So how is it that SBD NBA is performing so well to achieve a police accredited standard of physical security in such a fiercely competitive and financially driven construction marketplace?

The answer is that our NBA scheme makes it significantly simpler and quicker for developers to meet the security requirements of the Building Regulations for their new build developments in a wide range of sectors including residential, commercial, retail, mixed use, transport, health, education, leisure and many others.

After developers have agreed the basic level of physical security to be provided before building work commences, SBD takes on the task of carrying out due diligence on the developer’s supply chain to ensure their products are tested and certified by a United Kingdom Accreditation Service accredited, independent certification body.

Certification ensures that the quality of the original testing is being maintained over time going one step further than the one-off testing standard required by the Building Regulations.

An SBD Silver Certificate is awarded to the developer at this stage, before any building work has even begun – a great marketing tool for developers.

The agreed supply chain can now be used as a template going forward whenever and wherever that developer registers a new site with SBD – without having to seek a separate agreement with that area’s Police Force.

Our work with the Department for Communities and Local Government, National House Building Council, Local Authority Building Control and the Building Control Alliance means that our SBD NBA Silver Certificate can be used by developers as evidence to discharge their third-party obligations under Part Q of Schedule 1 (Security) to the Building Regulations 2010 in England (which came into force on 1 October 2015) and the Scottish Building Standard 4.13 – Security.

It also discharges any other obligation placed upon the developer by third parties to gain Section 2 (Physical Security) approval from any of our range of SBD security guides such as SBD Homes, SBD Commercial, SBD Schools and others.

An SBD trained Designing Out Crime Officer, or equivalent, attached to a Police Force, will be able to help a member company go one step further to attain an SBD Gold Certificate, which will show that they have also incorporated other proven crime prevention techniques into the external environment, such as natural surveillance, landscaping, light, fencing, gating and other measures.

SBD NBA also covers refurbishments, which fall outside the remit of Part Q, and therefore achieves higher standards of security to these premises than would otherwise be provided.

Independent academic research by the University of Huddersfield (2009) shows that SBD developments that incorporate crime prevention techniques and standards in the built environment and into the physical security are almost four times less likely to experience a burglary as non-SBD properties. The study focused on 16 SBD developments in West Yorkshire and found that these SBD dwellings had 5.8 burglary dwelling offences per 1,000 properties compared to 22.7 offences per 1,000 properties in the county overall. The same SBD developments also outperformed their non-SBD counterparts in a visual audit which included graffiti and vandalism, litter and broken windows.

SBD Chief Operating Officer, Jon Cole, said: “Whilst NBA is triggering the private development sector to choose SBD as their preferred compliance route for Part Q, NBA also works for those commissioning homes, by helping the specifier produce an NBA template that can be issued to their chosen developer, which then can be used ultimately as evidence to discharge the requirements of Part Q.”

SBD NBA Lead, Michael Brooke, who has championed the scheme, said: “Our growing number of developers are saying that they are valuing the time savings they are making because of our faster and simplified process, which takes a considerable administrative burden off them and helps keep them on schedule, reduces delays and ultimately saves them money.”

SBD NBA membership costs just £10 + VAT for a three-year term. As a police scheme aimed at reducing crime, we are not seeking to generate an income by this initiative. Our priority is to bring effective crime prevention measures to all new buildings and major refurbishments.

SBD NBA members, who are mostly in the new-build residential marketplace, include Barratt Homes, Berkeley Homes, Bovis and Redrow.  We have just recruited our first Scottish developer – Springfield Properties – based in Elgin.

Martin Conlon, Chair of the Building Control Alliance, said: “The Building Control Alliance welcomes the introduction of Secured by Design National Building Approval and acknowledges the awards as one way of demonstrating compliance with Part Q of the Building Regulations (England).”

For further information contact SBD:
Tel: 0203 8623 999
Email: sbdnba@police-cpi.co.uk
Web: http://ift.tt/RDHKJt

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