Methods to safely reduce the costs of managing asbestos

Abstract

Estimates suggest that 10 per cent of the cost of demolition and as much as 5 per cent of spend on refurbishment can be allocated to the management of asbestos, which is still present in 2.4m homes and three-quarters of commercial, municipal and industrial premises — typically located within the fabric of these buildings. These costs can be significant when applied to a large property portfolio or construction project. This paper provides a number of suggestions whereby this spend can be reduced without compromising safety. Financial savings can be made throughout the life cycle of the asbestos management process from survey planning and methodology to limiting damage, avoiding out-of-hours working, accurately predicting asbestos risk, targeting analytical works and making use of a government scheme to claim tax relief on all costs of decontaminating property assets.