An interim chief construction advisor is to be announced by the summer, ahead of a permanent appointment next year.
It comes after the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommended the role was resurrected following the tragedy.
The government said it intended to engage an interim advisor “promptly” and had already started outreach with potential candidates.
It is also working to finalise the scope and appointment process for the permanent advisor role, it said.
The update was included in a quarterly report on progress towards the 58 phase-two recommendations arising from the inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower.
The interim advisor is expected to be engaged for a fixed period to work on priority areas such as the design and implementation of the single construction regulator.
When the permanent advisor takes over next year, they will carry on that work, providing direct input and convening industry engagement around the setting up of the regulator, the update said.
More broadly, they will be tasked with advising the government and monitoring its work on building regulations, statutory guidance and the construction industry at large, as well as holding the sector to account for driving change.
The chief construction advisor role was originally created in 2009 to provide cross-departmental coordination and leadership on UK construction policy.
It was discontinued in 2015 but a recommendation following the Grenfell fire tragedy will now see it resurrected.
Of the recommendations emerging from the Grenfell Inquiry, 28 refer specifically to the construction sector, all of which are still in progress.
According to a separate update dealing with those recommendations, work to support the existing regulatory regime is already underway, with the strengthening of the Building Safety Regulator “as the foundation to moving towards greater consolidation”.
The government notes that it has also published its construction products reform green paper, which stipulates that claims over a product’s performance, including statements about its suitability for use in certain situations, must be “clear, honest, and evidenced”.
However, the paper drew a downbeat assessment when it was released in February, with former chief construction advisor Paul Morrell warning in CN that it would fail to prevent unsafe products reaching the market.
Updating those directly affected by the Grenfell tragedy ahead of its eighth anniversary, the government said that more activity would be expected on the tower site after the end of July ahead of site preparation beginning in August.
Work to bring the tower down, which will not start before September, is due to take around two years.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government announced last month that it intended to hand the contract to demolish the tower to Deconstruct, the firm currently maintaining the site, without a competition.
The new deal, worth £12.25m, will broaden the scope of Deconstruct’s maintenance and safety contract to allow the firm to dismantle the 24-storey tower to ground level.
The firm, principal contractor at the site since 2017, has been responsible for structural propping, security and maintenance, and site clearance, as well as weekly monitoring of the building’s condition.
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Kerry Lorimer