My Planet Liverpool magazine contributor Joel Jelen talks to one of the UK‘s leading building safety experts Project Four (P4) and their managing director Max Meadows on what the future holds for the UK construction sector in 2026 and beyond.
We know from our growing property networks in the Liverpool City Region that the future construction industry will be more regulated, more digital, more accountable, more sustainability-driven, more data-led and more safety-focused. Particularly with the latter in mind, safety and compliance are expected to dominate, especially in the UK…with post-Grenfell reforms having permanently changed the landscape. In fact, there’s never been more demand for building safety specialists with building safety expertise set to become one of the fastest-growing niches this decade.
With the above in mind, I recently met with Max Meadows (pictured) managing director at of one of the country’s leading and expert building safety firms, Project Four Building Safey (P4), to get his thoughts on the possible future of the construction industry. Max explained: “The future of construction won’t be defined by a single piece of regulation or a shiny new process. It will be shaped by how well the industry adapts to higher expectations around competence, accountability and delivery…and whether we are honest with ourselves as an industry about what needs to change.
“Since Grenfell, building safety has correctly moved to the centre of the conversation. The Building Safety Act has put considerable weight behind that shift by placing competence, i.e. skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEB) at the heart of the system. That’s the right thing to do. This new focus on SKEB has exposed a problem the industry cannot ignore. There are only so many genuinely competent people with the experience needed to deliver higher-risk buildings or assess compliance within the Building Safety Regulator and its multi-disciplinary teams, working alongside the Health and Safety Executive. We’ve said as much from our own findings as well as offering solutions to a House of Commons Select Committee back in September 2025.
In acknowledging the underlying recruitment issues in the industry, I addressed this with Max from a P4 standpoint, an industry-wide perspective, plus the onset of digital, and the knowledge that construction is becoming a data industry that happens to build things.
He responded: “There has been an ongoing battle to recruit from the same small pool of people, which has, and continues to do so, impacted programmes, costs and confidence across the sector. This reality has shaped how we’ve built our business at Project Four Building Safety Experts (P4) over the last couple of years. Yes, we’ve been successful in attracting experienced and capable professionals but we’ve also made a conscious decision not to rely solely on these hires. We’ve invested in bringing construction professionals looking to change roles, graduates and early-career professionals into the business and giving them a clear, structured route to develop their SKEB and work on large, complex schemes. If the industry doesn’t start growing new capability, rather than just moving it around, this problem will only get worse.
“How we enable those people is just as important too. As part of our wider 2–5-year plan, we are investing heavily in digital systems to strip out unnecessary admin, improve consistency and give clear audit trails. The aim is simple…let capable people spend more time doing what they’re good at, supporting project teams, engaging with the Regulator, and adding real value, instead of drowning in process. Digital isn’t about being clever or fashionable. In a heavily regulated environment, it’s about how you protect scarce expertise and make sure good people are focused on judgement and problem-solving, not paperwork.”
Construction has understandably had its fair share of negative headlines over the past decade alongside blame culture. P4 has been outspoken on this subject, so I asked Max to share his thoughts on the current and recent climate.
“There’s been a tendency in parts of the industry to blame regulation or the Building Safety Regulator for everything that’s difficult right now. Regulation is challenging but this didn’t create the underlying issues that Grenfell exposed. At P4, we’ve been very open in saying the industry needs to look at its own issues as well as external pressures. We’ve done this not only at central government level after being invited to share our expertise as mentioned above, but also, for example, in addressing literally hundreds of firms working across the construction sector at industry-wide events curated by P4.
“We’ve been consistently highlighting similar messages in our industry webinars too. That is, investing in competence (SKEB), building systems that actually support delivery, and accepting that higher standards require different ways of working and these are all key to bringing about the required change. We wouldn’t call ourselves disruptors, but we are challenging some long-held assumptions. Building safety isn’t a bolt-on service or a late-stage tick-box exercise. Done properly, it underpins programme certainty, investor confidence and long-term asset performance. “The direction of travel is clear. Over the next five years, the businesses that succeed will be the ones that invest early in people, competence and enablement and treat building safety as a strategic advantage, not a barrier.”
Project Four Safety 17 Mann Island, Liverpool L3 1DG
www.projectfoursafety.com
