by Iain McIlwee | 17 Aug, 2023 | Building Safety Act
With the October deadline looming, the much anticipated Secondary Regulations under the Building Safety Act 2022 have been published today by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The five key pieces of regulation laid today are:
- The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023,
- The Building Regulations (Higher-Risk Building Procedures) (England) 2023
- The Building (Approved Inspectors etc. And Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023
- The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023
- The Building Safety Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments etc.) Regulations 2023
The regulations aim to deliver the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackitt in her report Building A Safer Future and cover the technical detail underpinning the new, more stringent regime for the design and construction of higher-risk buildings, wider changes to the building regulations for all buildings and the details of the new in-occupation safety regime for higher-risk buildings.
The regulations can be found here: The Building Safety Act: secondary legislation – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Alongside the regulations, they have published the responses to the consultations on them which were held last summer. The government response to the consultations can be found here:
These Regulations will fundamentally reform the way buildings are designed, built and managed to ensure safety of those who live in them. These Regulations introduce significant reform to building control for all buildings and a new bespoke approach to building control for blocks of flats, hospitals and care homes of 18m or more or seven stories or more under the new Building Safety Regulator.
The Regulations also introduce the new in occupation regime where dutyholders must demonstrate they are proactively engaging with residents on building safety and demonstrate to the building safety regulator that they are managing the building safety risks in their building – fire spread and structural collapse – appropriately.
The next sets of regulations related to the new regime will be laid shortly. The Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc) (England) Regulations and the Charges Regulations are due to be laid next month. The former regulations will cover the information that accountable persons for occupied higher-risk buildings need to keep as golden thread information and what information they need to share with residents and other people who are involved in ensuring the safety of the building. The latter will set out the approach to charging by the Building Safety Regulator.
FIS will be reviewing in detail and provide summary as soon as practical. In the meantime, you find out more about the Building Safety Act via our Building Safety Act Hub here.
by Iain McIlwee | 27 Jul, 2023 | Building Safety Act
Cladding Safety Scheme opens to give thousands more buildings access to government funding to fix dangerous cladding for the first time.
The government has announced its biggest building safety intervention to date as part of a wider package of measures to help end the building safety crisis across England.
The full opening of the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS), announced in a speech by Housing Secretary Michael Gove, means that costs associated with removing unsafe cladding in mid-rise buildings will now be covered by government funding, protecting leaseholders from costs where the responsible developer cannot be made to pay. It is estimated that thousands more mid-rise buildings will qualify, giving tens of thousands of residents across England a pathway to a safe home, with no cost whatsoever to leaseholders in the building.
The CSS will be funded by both the £5.1 billion allocated by government to fix the most dangerous buildings and through revenue from the Building Safety Levy on new development.
The scheme will be available to all medium-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres across England and high-rise buildings over 18 metres outside of London where fire safety professionals have recommended that works must take place. The scheme will also be available to the social housing sector.
All building owners who believe they are eligible for funding need to apply through Homes England Cladding Safety Scheme application portal.
Any leaseholders or residents living in a building they think is eligible for funding will be able to provide further information about their building using Homes England’s ‘Tell Us tool’.
Peter Denton, Chief Executive of Homes England, said:
The Cladding Safety Scheme pilot was an important step in removing the cost burden on leaseholders trapped in unsafe homes and built on the progress made on building safety.
The full rollout of the programme allows us to go even further. Our team is ready to go, and we expect thousands of buildings to benefit over the next decade.
We will continue to work with DLUHC to ensure the pace we’re working at is maintained, so we can bring peace of mind and protection to the millions of people whose lives have been affected by unsafe cladding.
The opening of the CSS means that costs of fixing dangerous cladding for all buildings in England over 11 metres will now be covered either by government funding or by developers who built them.
Earlier this year, the Secretary of State secured the signatures of 49 of the country’s biggest housebuilders on his developer remediation contract – a major step toward ending the building safety crisis.
The developers all put pen to paper on the legally binding document and committed themselves to fix unsafe buildings they developed or refurbished in England over the 30 years to 5 April 2022. The government has now written to eligible developers to invite them to join the Responsible Actors Scheme giving them 60 days to respond. Eligible developers who choose not to join, or who join the Scheme but then renege on their commitments, will be prohibited from carrying out major development or obtaining building control approvals.
While funding is a major part of solving the crisis, it is also important that residents see swift progress once work has been deemed necessary. The government has been clear that there is no excuse for unsafe cladding to be left unmanaged. Building owners must meet their legal obligations to fix fire safety defects in their buildings and make homes safe quickly.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Building Safety Regulator, the Local Government Association, and the National Fire Chiefs Council have today published a joint statement committing to work together to enforce the remediation of fire safety defects, underlining their commitment to see buildings made safe faster. Building owners who continue to stall can expect to face robust enforcement action from regulators, with the full support of government behind them.
The Greater London Authority will continue to deliver remediation to London-based 18m+ buildings through the Building Safety Fund.
Buildings in England already progressing through the Building Safety Fund will not be transferred into the new CSS but their progress will remain unaffected.
by Clair Mooney | 19 Jul, 2023 | Building Safety Act, Main News Feed
Following recent changes to the Building Safety Act, FIS has updated its Product Process People Risk Register to support members with compliance.
The FIS PPP Risk Register gives people a structured framework to interrogate project risk based on a assessment of severity and probability of a risk occurring. The standard scoring system helps members to identify any unacceptable high risks and ensure management strategies are put in place to address. The tool also helps a management team to assign risk correctly and contains a range of links to additional tools and information that will help support specific risk management.
FIS CEO Iain McIlwee said: “A large part of our work centres on interrogating and helping members to manage day to day problems they may encounter, risks. This is a moving and evolving space. Our tool helps us to ensure that we are learning lessons and that members are alert to where problems may appear,
Risk is unescapable in any construction project, but at times we can feel so beset by risk that we become indifferent to it. It is vital that as an industry we get better at measuring, managing and mitigating. This simple tool is built on the premise that if you can’t measure it or didn’t think about it, you can’t manage it. It aims to help people to score risks. The underlying principle is that is that we can all learn from our own mistakes, but it is better learn together and avoid learning the hard way wherever possible.”
The FIS PPP Risk Register is available for members to download here
by Clair Mooney | 13 Jul, 2023 | Building Safety Act
The Building Safety Act states that those working in constructing our homes, offices, hospitals and care homes should provide evidence of their competence to the client to submit as part of the applications to build and before occupation of the buildings.
FIS Technical Director Joe Cilia was the Deputy Chair of the group (WG12) that developed the Built Environment – Proposed construction product competence standard – white paper, who alongside the joint Chairs, Hanna Clarke of the CPA and Douglas Masterson at the GAI developed the white paper alongside a dedicated group of industry experts.
The Standard will help organisations and individuals define people’s functions and introduce levels of competence against the function to track an individuals progression.
by Clair Mooney | 12 Jul, 2023 | Building Safety Act, Main News Feed
Ahead of the next phase of the building safety regime coming into effect from 1 October, Build UK has updated its guide and timeline to reflect the regulations and supporting guidance that have recently been published. Changes in the July 2023 version of the guide, which is supported by the CLC, include:
- Clarifying the definition of a Higher‐Risk Building
- A link to the guidance on Key Building Information (KBI), which can now be submitted as part of the registration process for High‐Rise Residential Buildings
- Updated information on the new building control framework
- New guidance on Planning Gateway One and confirmation that hospitals and care homes are excluded from the requirements
- An updated link to guidance on the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
To ensure businesses across the supply chain are aware of their responsibilities under the new regime, Build UK is sharing its guide through Building Magazine. In an article published yesterday, Build UK Chief Executive Suzannah Nichol explained: “We believe that helping the whole supply chain to see the bigger picture will make it easier for everyone to understand where they fit in and what their responsibilities are…No one company or organisation can do this alone. We talk a lot about collaboration and this really does need a combined effort from Team Construction.”
by Clair Mooney | 29 Jun, 2023 | Building Safety Act
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has issued guidance which relates to the legal criteria for determining whether a building is considered a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023. It relates to the definition of higher-risk building during the occupation phase of the higher-risk regime only.
This guidance sets out the criteria for a building to be a higher-risk building during the occupation phase of the higher-risk regime. Higher-risk buildings are subject to the requirements of the new higher-risk regime directly overseen by the Building Safety Regulator (the Regulator).
Higher-risk buildings, for the in-occupation requirements under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act), are defined in section 65 of the Act and the Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 (the Regulations).
The obligations in Part 4 of the Act largely apply to occupied buildings and this is, therefore, referred to as the ‘in-occupation’ part of the regime. To understand whether a building is a higher-risk building, the Act and the Regulations need to be considered together.
For the in-occupation part of the regime, higher-risk buildings are defined as buildings with at least two residential units which are at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys. The definition of “higher-risk building” is only for the purpose of the new higher-risk regime. The definitions in the Act and Regulations do not amend definitions in other legislation or definitions of building in other parts of the Act, such as the definition of “relevant building” under section 117 of the Act which defines a ‘relevant building’ for the purpose of the leaseholder protections under sections 119 to 125 and Schedule 8 of the Act.
This guidance document includes the relevant text from the Act and Regulations with explanations and diagrams. It is a tool to help potential principal accountable persons and accountable persons determine if the building they are responsible for is a higher-risk building. This guidance and the specifics and circumstances of your building need to be considered by you when discharging your duties under the Act and the Regulations. Diagrams in this guidance document show examples of potential buildings and are for illustrative purposes only. You will need to consider the legislation carefully to understand whether you are responsible for a higher-risk building in scope of the higher-risk regime. You may wish to seek legal advice on this.
In addition to becoming a higher-risk building under the Act and the Regulations, your building may also be subject to other legislation and statutory duties, such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. You will need to work with the relevant dutyholders in the building to ensure it is safe.
