Almost every construction project with more than one contractor legally requires a principal designer — and since the Building Safety Act reforms, the role now exists under both CDM 2015 (health and safety) and the Building Regulations (compliance). Many clients only discover these duties exist when something goes wrong. Manchester Surveyors provides principal designer services that keep projects compliant from the first design decision.
The Principal Designer’s Duties
Under CDM 2015
- Plan, manage and monitor the pre-construction phase — coordinating health and safety across all designers
- Eliminate and reduce risks through design — the cheapest moment to remove a hazard is on the drawing board
- Pre-construction information — assembling and issuing what contractors need to price and plan safely
- Health and safety file — the handover document every future owner and contractor will rely on
Under the Building Regulations (Building Safety Act)
- Coordinating design work so the project is capable of complying with Building Regulations, with duty-holder competence records to match
Client Duties — the Part Most Clients Miss
CDM places duties on you as client: appointing the principal designer and principal contractor in writing, ensuring arrangements are in place, and notifying the HSE on larger projects (F10). Fail to appoint, and the duties default to you personally. We advise domestic and commercial clients on exactly what their project requires — without gold-plating small works.
Integrated With Design and Delivery
As chartered surveyors providing structural design, contract administration and project management, we carry the principal designer role as part of a joined-up appointment — one team, clear accountability.
Project needing a principal designer? Contact us to confirm your duties and get a fixed-fee proposal. Nationwide service.
What a Principal Designer Does
Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, any project with more than one contractor must have a principal designer: the duty holder who plans, manages and monitors health and safety through the pre-construction phase. That means identifying foreseeable risks in the design, coordinating the design team’s responses, compiling pre-construction information for tenderers and ensuring the health and safety file is prepared for handover. For domestic clients the duty applies automatically — most homeowners simply never hear about it until something goes wrong.
How We Deliver the Role
We act as principal designer on residential extensions and refurbishments, commercial fit-outs and small developments across the North West — usually alongside our contract administration or project management services, where the roles dovetail naturally. The service is documented, proportionate to risk, and priced as a fixed fee so CDM compliance does not become an open-ended cost.
Do small domestic projects really need a principal designer?
If more than one contractor will be involved — main contractor plus electrician counts — yes, the duty exists, and it defaults to the designer or the client if nobody is appointed. Appointing one properly costs little and removes a personal liability most homeowners do not know they are carrying. Call 020 4579 8270.