Countdown to New Building Safety Regime

Countdown to New Building Safety Regime

The next phase of the new Building Safety Regime will come into effect from 1 October and will affect all new buildings.

For new Higher‐Risk Buildings (HRBs), the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will be the Building Control Body, with transitional arrangements allowing projects already underway to continue to completion under the current regulatory framework. All members through the supply chain should make sure they are clear which requirements will apply to their projects from 1 October and take the necessary steps to comply with them.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has also released two more sets of regulations. The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023 bring into force a number of provisions of the Building Safety Act, including making the BSR the Building Control Body for HRBs, whilst The Building Act 1984 (Commencement No. 3) (England) Order 2023 amends section 33 of the Building Act 1984 to allow the building control authority to either conduct tests of a building to ascertain whether the work would contravene Building Regulations or require the owner or occupier of the building to do so.

FIS Guide: Introduction to the Building Safety Act

FIS has written a guide to help introduce the basic concepts of the Building Safety Act to all businesses.

FIS publishes guidance to the Building Safety Act

FIS publishes guidance to the Building Safety Act

The Building Safety Act (BSA) is the most significant piece of new legislation in a generation. It will fundamentally change the way in which buildings where people live are designed, constructed and maintained and records kept of what was built, by whom and how.  The Building Safety Act comprises of primary as well as secondary legislation which has complicated and new responsibilities and processes.  This guide has been written to help introduce the basic concepts of the Building Safety Act to all businesses.

CPA publishes summary and guidance papers on Building Safety Act

CPA publishes summary and guidance papers on Building Safety Act

The Building Safety Act 2022 (applicable to England and Wales) introduces the most significant changes for the construction industry in the past four decades. The CPA has been engaging with government for several years on this legislation. CPA has published two papers to offer a summary and guidance to members around key aspects of the Act:

  • The first is a summary and guidance especially as it pertains to duties, obligations and regulations now facing members. Click here to read more.
  • The second offers guidance especially as it pertains to liabilities now facing members. Click here to read more.
Secondary Regulation to support Building Safety Act Published

Secondary Regulation to support Building Safety Act Published

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.

Government launches biggest cladding removal scheme

Government launches biggest cladding removal scheme

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.

Further information

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.

FIS update Risk Register

FIS update Risk Register

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