Government Invites Responses on Building Safety Reforms Consultation

THE DEPARTMENT for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has published 12 consultations on the proposed changes to Building Regulations under Part Three of the Building Safety Act 2022.

The consultations (open until 12 October 2022) are part of the drive to make cultural changes and behaviours to improve building safety following the Grenfell Tower tragedy and Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommendations introduced in the The Building Safety Act 2022.

The package of legislation aims to deliver improvements across the entire built environment and improve the whole system of building safety regulation while providing clarity to the sector on its responsibilities and duties. Some of the changes in the Building Safety Act 2022 will apply to all building work, not just high-rise residential buildings.

Consultation Focus

The consultation focuses mainly on the changes that will be made to the Building Regulations to implement the new building safety reforms.

The consultation sections are:

• New dutyholder and competence requirements on all building work and additional duties for those working on higher-risk buildings. These new roles and requirements aim to ensure a stronger focus on compliance with the regulations
• A series of robust hard stops (“gateway points”) to strengthen regulatory oversight before a higher-risk building is occupied
• The approach to Regulator’s notices to support building projects which comprise both higher-risk building work and non-higher risk building work
• Stronger change control during the construction of higher-risk buildings
• Additional requirements for building work carried out in existing higher-risk building work, e.g. refurbishments
• The process of certifying building work that has been carried out without building regulations approval (regularisation)
• Establishing greater record keeping and management in higher-risk buildings (golden thread of information)
• A mandatory occurrence reporting system in higher-risk buildings
• More rigorous enforcement powers for building work in all buildings to focus incentives on the creation of reliably safe buildings from the outset and the approach taken to the review and appeal of building control decisions
• Wider changes to the building regulations to align the existing system with the new system
• The transitional provisions for changing to the new higher-risk building regime

Building Safety

For more information on the consultations see Consultation on implementing the new building control regime for higher-risk buildings and wider changes to the building regulations for all buildings.

Responders can email BuildingRegulationsConsultation@levellingup.gov.uk or respond online by 12 October 2022.

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