Building Safety Act - impact on leadership
Barbra Carlisle • January 15, 2026
Leading in the Building Safety Act Era: Competence, Confidence and the ‘Golden Thread’
What’s changed for UK construction leaders?
In short: almost everything. The industry is operating under tighter compliance (the Building Safety Act), persistent skills shortages, output volatility and rising labour costs. The BSA has raised the bar on competence and accountability, making leaders - rather than compliance teams alone - responsible for consistent, documented, risk‑aware decisions across the project lifecycle. Meanwhile, the skills and digital capability required to deliver the golden thread are still catching up. That combination is why projects stall - not for technical reasons, but because leadership, communication, and team competence aren’t keeping pace.
Against this backdrop, Alan Brookes, CEO of Arcadis
in The Unlikely Executive Podcast,
offers timely counsel for leaders under pressure:
“It’s not a weakness to ask for help. It’s actually part of your own learning and development.”
along with
“Show up with some confidence. Believe in yourself. Don’t hesitate. Somebody else may not back you, so you’ve got to back yourself.”
These principles map directly to BSA‑era delivery. (Context: Arcadis operates at global scale, circa €4bn net revenue and ~35k people.) [ons.gov.uk]
The State of Play: Compliance Up, Capacity Tight, Margins Squeezed
Output & cost pressure.
ONS data show late‑2025 weakness - monthly output fell in October and November - while BCIS notes subdued demand, sticky inflation and labour‑led cost pressure. In that environment, inconsistency and rework get punished; leaders need planning discipline, visible accountability, and competence, not last‑minute heroics.
Skills & capacity.
CITB’s 2025–2029 outlook projects the industry needs c47,860 extra workers per year (c239,300 over five years). Skills England highlights long‑standing productivity underperformance and the need to strengthen competence pipelines. You won’t meet BSA expectations with “bums on seats”; you need competent, evidenced capability.
Why this matters now.
The BSA imposes dutyholder obligations, competence requirements and the golden thread, comprehensive, reliable information from design to operation. Non‑compliance attracts penalties and liability; leadership must align people, process and data, across the supply chain, to evidence decisions, not just make them.
What the Building Safety Act Means for Leaders (Not Just for Compliance)
1) Competence is a leadership problem, not an HR file.
The BSA expects that those designing, building and managing higher‑risk buildings are competent with the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to do the job. That’s hard across mixed supply chains and variable subcontractor standards. Leaders must define competence expectations by role, align them with PAS guidance where relevant, and evidence that competence is maintained.
2) The golden thread demands usable, trustworthy data.
You won’t achieve the golden thread with siloed emails and file dumps. You need consistent information management, clear ownership, and digital workflows that teams actually use. BIM and CDEs help, but adoption and skills still lag; treat digital as a behavioural change, not an IT procurement.
3) Accountability is personal and cultural.
Gateways, dutyholder roles, retrospective liabilities, these shift risk onto leadership choices. The BSA isn’t “tick‑box”; it’s an operating model. Leaders set the tone: clear responsibilities, transparent escalation, and no‑surprises reporting when problems arise.
The Digital Reality Check: AI & BIM Are Enablers - If Teams Are Ready
Reports show a sector at a digital tipping point: AI/BIM use rising but capability and integration patchy. RICS finds optimism about AI’s value yet low scaled adoption due to skills, data quality and integration. NBS notes anxiety about being left behind is growing, while daily use of digital tools is increasing. Leaders must insist on right‑sized, standardised practices teams can repeat under pressure, not grand platforms that don’t change behaviour.
Leadership implication: the golden thread is only as strong as the weakest behaviour. Agree the minimum digital behaviours (where issues are logged, who approves what, how decisions are captured, where models/documents live). Train them, coach them, audit them.
Alan Brookes’ Playbook for the BSA Era
Listen first.
“Listen. Understand the business.” In BSA terms: listen to where documentation breaks, where competence is assumed not evidenced, where subcontractor onboarding fails. Don’t move tech or org charts until you’ve heard the reality from site to boardroom.
Ask for help.
“It’s not a weakness to ask for help.” Establish mentoring and coaching routines so leaders surface uncertainty early before it becomes non‑compliance. Create a culture where “I don’t know -show me” is professional, not perilous.
Back yourself -then build the best team.
“Somebody else may not back you, so you’ve got to back yourself,” and “get the very best team around you.” Bring in the skills for the future: information management, digital coordination, competent principal designer/contractor capability, and project controls that withstand regulatory scrutiny.
Stay grounded. The childhood photo is more than sentiment; it keeps ego in check and sustains service‑centred leadership - critical when the law raises expectations and the pressure to perform narrows your field of vision. “Remember where you came from. Don’t get big‑headed.”
If you’re leading in construction or housing and want to strengthen communication, competence, and delivery under the BSA—without drowning in operational noise—my 6‑month coaching programme is designed for this context. We focus on:
Decision clarity and authority under pressure
Competence frameworks and real‑world evidence gathering
Golden‑thread behaviours your team will actually use
Mentoring/feedback cadences that build confidence and reduce rework
→ Book a clarity call
to discuss your context and goals.
Ideas and thoughts on how to lead well through complexity and change
Senior leadership comes with an unspoken contract. Be decisive but do not intimidate people. Be confident but do not dominate the room. Be passionate but tone it down. Be resilient but do not show strain. One senior leader described it like this: “People want you to be assertive but not assertive. Strong but weak. Passionate but not showing too much passion.” If that sounds contradictory, it is. And yet this is what many experienced leaders carry every day, quietly. When experience does not equal belonging In a recent conversation with a Technical Director who has spent over 20 years in a male‑dominated industry, one question stayed with me: “When do I get to belong?” This was not said from a place of insecurity or inexperience. This was someone who: - leads large, complex programmes - manages global teams - has built capability from the ground up - is objectively successful And still feels the need to prove herself again and again. That constant internal checking, am I being too much, am I not enough, is exhausting. Not because leaders cannot handle pressure. Because the rules keep shifting. The pressure nobody notices Many senior leaders normalise the strain. They tell themselves: - this is just the job - others have it worse - I can push a bit longer Until the body intervenes. One moment shared was stark. Working across multiple major projects, sleeping badly, always saying yes. And then the body simply stopped cooperating. A breakdown that arrived without warning. Not drama. Not failure. Feedback. What resilience actually looked like The shift did not come from wellness slogans or better time management. It came from three grounded changes. 1. Capacity boundaries A clear rule. If something new comes in, something else must move out. Not because of weakness. Because leadership requires judgement about capacity, not endless commitment. 2. Progress over perfection Daily focus on what can realistically move forward. Two completed tasks is not underperformance. It is momentum. 3. Perspective under pressure A recurring reminder in difficult moments: “No one is going to die.” This is not dismissive. It is grounding. It brings leaders out of panic mode and back into proportion. The quiet truth about senior leadership At the top, pressure does not disappear. It simply becomes less visible. Strong leaders are not struggling because they lack resilience. They struggle when they are expected to absorb contradiction, manage everyone else’s comfort, and never acknowledge the cost. Leadership is not about being everything at once. It is about being clear enough to lead without erasing yourself. If this resonates, it is not because you are failing. It is because you are carrying more than most people see.
There’s a moment in many leadership careers where promotion comes with a quiet trade‑off. Not made explicit. Not negotiated. But keenly felt. You’re rewarded for your expertise – and then slowly pulled away from it. In my latest podcast episode, I spoke with Dr Nike Folayan MBE (PhD, CEng., FIET, HonFREng), Technical Director at WSP, who manages a team of 40+ engineers and remains fiercely committed to technical excellence. Her experience mirrors what I see repeatedly when coaching senior leaders in construction and engineering. “I knew my strength was technical. But I was put into non‑technical interface roles – and it almost destroyed me.” This is where many leaders break. The hidden cost of “helpful” roles Nike described being moved into interface management on a major infrastructure project. On paper, it looked like exposure. In reality, it stripped away her professional identity. She was no longer recognised as an engineer – but as someone who was “good at organising”. It was a form of professional dilution. And it happens more than people think. Engineers promoted into coordination or management Specialists turned into generalists Experts trapped in meetings while others do the work they want to do Eventually, they disconnect – or leave. The issue isn’t all about capability. It’s clarity and showcasing. What allowed Nike to rebuild wasn’t luck or resilience clichés. It was brutal clarity. “You have to be very clear what you want to do – even when you’re doing roles you don’t want.” She stayed alert. She watched for technical re‑entry points. She refused to let one misalignment define her career. That’s leadership agency. For senior leaders reading this If promotion has pulled you away from the work that gives you authority and credibility, ask yourself: Where am I adding value – and where am I merely being useful? What assumptions have others made about what I should do? What am I quietly tolerating that’s costing me energy? Promotion without authorship isn’t advancement. It’s erosion. If this resonates, it’s probably time to recalibrate. You don’t need another role. You need a clearer one. Listen to the full podcast episode here or watch on You Tube here
