Building Safety Regulation in a Changing World: Global Lessons for Reform

Victoria Hills is Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). She comes into this role having previously served as CEO of the Royal Town Planning Institute and with more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles. Her previous experiences have most recently been in the membership sector, covering planning, transport, regeneration and regional government. Working for all three Mayors of London, her projects included establishment of the UK’s second Mayoral Development Corporation, the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation. Victoria currently sits on the Advisory Board of Black Professionals In Construction (BPIC) and the Transport Knowledge Hub Advisory Board. Victoria also is a Commissioner on the Essex Climate Action Commission and is a member of the Worshipful Company of Paviors. In 2024, Victoria was awarded an Honorary Degree Doctor of Technology. 

Adjunct Professor Kim Lovegrove DLitt (Honoris Causa), MSE, RML is an Australasian construction lawyer, international building law reform adviser, founder of Lovegrove & Cotton Construction & Planning Lawyers, and Chairman of the International Building Quality Centre (IBQC). For more than three decades, his work has influenced building law reform, regulatory systems and professional liability frameworks in Australia and internationally. He was Project Director of Australia's National Model Building Act, the nation's first model building legislative template, and policy architect of the 2026 IBQC International Model Building Act, the world's first international model building legislative template. He was also principal legal adviser to the Victorian Government on the development and implementation of the Building Act 1993 (Vic). His public sector appointments include Assistant Director of Building Control (Victoria), Deputy Executive Director of the Australian Building Codes Board and Chair of the Victorian Building Practitioners Board. He served as President of professional institutes in Australia and New Zealand. In 2025, he advised the New Zealand Government on reforms replacing joint and several liability with proportionate liability under the Building Act. He has undertaken building regulatory law reform assignments for the World Bank and advised governments in China, India, Malaysia and Malawi. In Japan, he participated in government-convened law reform programmes on building regulation and legislative design. As Chairman of the IBQC, he leads an international collaboration of jurists, regulators, academics and industry leaders dedicated to advancing good practice in building regulation. His academic appointments include Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and Southern Cross University, Conjoint Professor at Western Sydney University, and Visiting Professor at RMIT University. He is the author or co-author of more than fifteen books on building law and regulatory reform. His honours include the Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) awarded by Western Sydney University for distinguished contributions to building law and regulatory reform, the Royal Medal of the Lion for services to construction law, and the Order of the Star of Ethiopia for humanitarian service to Ethiopia. He is a former Honorary Consul for Ethiopia in Victoria, Australia.

Dame Judith Hackitt is a chemical engineer by training and spent the first half of her career working in the chemicals industry – both in manufacturing and also as an advocate for the industry at national and international level. She is a former President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. During her Presidency of IChemE she made Process Safety a key theme of all her engagements and was instrumental in the formation of the International Safety Centre. Throughout her career she has championed the importance of Engineering in delivering solutions which provide benefit to society and has been a role model particularly for young women wanting to enter the profession. She cares deeply about safety in the workplace and more broadly. From 2007 to 2016 she was Chair of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive and in 2017 conducted an Independent Review for UK Government into Building Regulations and Fire Safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower  disaster. Since publishing her final report in 2018 she has continued to press for regulatory change and for industry culture change and her recommendations for radical reform of the regulatory system received Royal Assent in the Building Safety Act 2022.  The change has been described as the biggest shake up in Construction regulation in a generation. She is currently chair of the Industry Safety Steering Group and of the Building Control Independent panel and continues to press for culture change around safety in the built environment.

Jayashree Srinivasan is a Regulatory Specialist in the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, Development Economics Vice Presidency, where she works on data, research, and regulatory analysis to support private sector development. She is the Topic Lead for Business Location under the World Bank’s Business Ready (B-READY) project, leading work on built environment regulations, land administration systems, and environmental permitting. Jayashree also leads the World Bank’s Building Green initiative on building energy codes, which develops global data and analytical work on the coverage, stringency, implementation, and enforcement of building energy regulations. Her work focuses on indicator development, regulatory reform, and knowledge products that help governments identify practical pathways to improve the business environment, urban development outcomes, and sustainable building practices.