BOOK NOW | ‘Show Me the Bodies’ author to deliver keynote at Building Safety Act conference
Orwell-prizewinner Peter Apps is the latest speaker to join a robust line-up for the 18 September event, an all-day workshop geared towards providing actionable advice on how to navigate each gateway more effectively.
Place North West and Project Four Building Safety Experts have teamed up to present Building Safety Act: what have we learned and what comes next? Held on 18 September from 8am to 4pm at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the event is for all those in the built environment who want to deliver high-quality, safe buildings.
Straight answers, real insight, and shared solutions – that’s what this event is all about. We will be working together to craft genuine best practice for building in the post-Grenfell era.
What Makes This Event Different
- It’s not about PowerPoint. It’s about real-world knowledge, shared challenges, and building solutions together.
- Peer-to-peer honesty. Lessons learnt from multiple duty holders – from early design to building management.
- Strategic takeaways. Practical frameworks to help you plan, deliver and educate for now and into 2026+.
- Fresh perspectives. Hear from developers, designers, asset managers, and regulators on adapting to the new reality.
What We’ll Explore
- Planning, designing, and delivering with confidence under the BSA
- Navigating Gateways and golden thread expectations without the grey
- Building a Safety Case strategy that actually works
- Viability, compliance, and the changing role of project cashflow
- How to upskill teams and clients without overwhelming them
- What a smart framework for SKEB looks like
- And above all… how we lead the change, not just survive it
This isn’t just a gathering. It’s a turning point. Let’s stop talking in circles. Let’s build what’s next – together.
Speakers confirmed so far:
Peter Apps is the author of Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen. Over a 10-year career at the specialist magazine Inside Housing, Apps has won numerous awards for his news and analysis of the UK’s affordable housing sector. He was one of the few to raise concerns about dangerous cladding and high-rise buildings before the Grenfell Tower fire and provided revelatory reporting in its aftermath on the causes of the blaze. This reporting culminated in his acclaimed book, Show Me the Bodies, which won the 2023 Orwell Prize for political writing. His second book, Homesick: How Housing Broke London & How We Fix It, will be published by Oneworld in September 2025.
Kuli Bajwa is the founder and director of Pareto Projects. The development and project management consultancy is working on projects across the country, including Scape Living’s No1 Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow, and Moda’s The Mercian in Birmingham. Bajwa works closely with clients, consultants, and contractors to navigate complex challenges, including Building Safety Act compliance. A committed champion of professional development, Kuli has spoken at UKREiiF, delivered CPD training on the Building Safety Act, and serves as an APC counsellor and assessor with the RICS. She is also a member of the Association for Project Management.
Colin Blatchford-Brown is a BSA technical advisor at Project Four Building Safety Experts. Blatchford-Brown was operational policy lead for gateways and building control at the Health and Safety Executive, working as part of the building safety programme to set up the Building Safety Regulator. He also worked on the secondary legislation to support the introduction of the Building Safety Act.
Allan Binns is a director at Project Four Building Safety Experts. With more than two decades of experience in CDM, Binns has spent the past few years becoming an expert in the Building Safety Act.
Ged Couser is an architect principal at BDP and the North West regional chair of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Couser has extensive knowledge and experience in leading the design and delivery of major and complex projects from the initial concept stage through to completion.
Andy Cox is the co-founder of Trigon. Trigon is a development manager, guiding projects from inception to completion – including drafting legal frameworks, managing stakeholders, and the final handover. Cox has worked on projects across the sectors – from residential to hotels to commercial.
Emma Evans is a regulatory partner at Bexley Beaumont. Evans specialises in health, safety, fire and building safety law. She supports organisations in developing robust governance, managing regulatory investigations, and fostering safer built environments through proactive legal strategy. Evans will be providing a legal update on where we are with building safety, where we are heading, and some of the challenges she still encounters in her legal practice.
Alan Robson is the chairman of Project Four Building Safety Experts. Robson co-founded Project Four. He has more than two decades of experience in helping companies navigate regulatory compliance. Robson is passionate about keeping CDM/BSA simple and leaving a lasting legacy for the built environment.
Mo Shana’a is the chief executive of Morta Technology. Morta provides software capable of streamlining processes in the built environment and AEC. Morta provides a platform with the familiarity of spreadsheets and the utility of databases. It is used by organisations like the Ministry of Justice, Kier, and Mott MacDonald to automatically plan, track, and report on information by seamlessly connecting to other software applications. Shana’a is a civil engineer by background, has an MPhil in engineering for sustainable development from the University of Cambridge, and is a member of the Information Management Initiative Task Group and the Building Smart UK & Ireland Chapter.
Aman Sharma is the chief executive of Totus Digital. With a background as both a former fire and rescue service officer and a fire engineer, Sharma combines extensive operational and technical expertise with a commitment to advancing fire safety through digital innovation and information management. Sharma is chair of the British Standards Institution committee FSH/0, where he oversees the strategic direction and ongoing development of all British fire safety standards.
Tickets are £88+VAT. Your pass for the event includes breakfast and lunch, as well as networking breaks to help you grow your business. Fancy a deal? Book before the end of August to take advantage of Place’s two-for-one deal on conference tickets.
Book using the form below – if you can’t see the form, please contact [email protected]
- To apply our summer 2-for-1 discount, select option 1 below, ensuring you have added two tickets to your basket.
- If you only require a single ticket, please use option 2.
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