Catalogue description Records of Directorate General of Research and Development

In October 1962 the Ministry of Public Building and Works was given the duty of co-ordinating all government building research and development work. In 1963 a new Directorate General of Research and Development was established for this purpose; it was also concerned to standardise methods of construction and to disseminate them throughout the construction industry. It was divided into Directorates of Economic Intelligence, Development, Building Management and Research and Information. In 1963 a National Building Agency was set up, its directors being appointed by the minister.

In 1965 the Committee on Agrément, appointed by the ministry and chaired by Sir Donald Douglas, reported. It recommended the establishment of an independent body, the Agrément Board, to conduct technical assessments of new building products and materials and to issue certificates, valid for three years, to cover the product concerned until a British Standard or Code of Practice could be issued. The Board was set up in 1966. Technical research was carried out by the Building Research Station, taken over by the ministry in 1965 following the abolition of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The ministry was also responsible for policy matters arising from the Building Control Act 1966. In 1967 the ministry took over control of the Building Research Station from the Ministry of Technology.

In practice the contribution of the Ministry of Public Building and Works to the building industry lay less in overall supervision than in advisory services, standardisation and improvements in technique. Building controls were found to be more easily administered through local government, and in 1966 responsibility for the National Building Agency, regulations under public health legislation for the construction of new buildings and the programming and processing of housing returns and statistics were transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Scottish Office and the Welsh Office. The Building Control Act 1966 was revoked in 1968. Liaison with industry was maintained, and in 1968 the National Consultative Council of the Building and Civil Engineering Industries was reconstituted to include official members, and the Minister of Public Building and Works became its chairman.

The MPBW was absorbed into the new Department of the Environment on 12 November 1970. Following the setting up of a unified organisation for research within the Department of the Environment, in July 1971, the title of the directorate was changed to, Directorate General of Development (Housing and Construction).