Building safety updates: more Regulations published; Building Safety Alliance to become a charity

News

  • Building safety

06 September 2023

Building safety

August saw the publication of a whole series of Regulations under the Building Safety Act 2022, giving us more clarity about the duties the new regime expects both in the occupation phase for higher-risk residential buildings and during construction and works for all buildings.

The regulations 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.

All of these regulations are important for our profession. The Building Regulations are relevant to FMs because they change the way all buildings are designed and built and any building works that would be carried out in existing buildings. These changes 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.   

For those managing higher-risk residential buildings, The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023 is of particular interest. That Statutory Instrument 2023 No 907 outlines provisions in relation to their management of safety risks in higher-risk buildings, including the below.

  • The Building Assessment Certificate, and what information needs to be included in the application for the certificate.
  • The prescribed principles which the (Principal) Accountable Person must comply with when managing buildings. This includes the competence requirement that a person needs the skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours (SKEB) to perform the functions they are responsible for. BS8673:2022 Built environment – Competence requirements for the management of safety in residential buildings – Specification is critical here. For organisations, they have to ensure organisational capability. We are collaborating in the Building Safety Alliance to deliver an initial standard to this effect.
  • More information about the safety case report contents, including a description summarising the system for managing safety for the building. The purpose of these provisions is to demonstrate to the building safety regulator that they are managing the building safety risks in their building - fire spread and structural collapse – appropriately.
  • Provisions around the keeping of information and documents (golden thread) and information that needs to be shared. Further detail is expected soon in other regulations.
  • Provisions on the mandatory reporting requirements.
  • The duties around the residents’ engagement strategy which require dutyholders to demonstrate they are proactively engaging with residents on building safety.
  • Further provisions on PAP complaints procedures, contravention notices, compliance notices, and appeals against decisions to refuse to remove buildings from the register.

We are expecting further sets of regulations related to the new regime to be laid shortly. The Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc) (England) Regulations and the Charges Regulations are both due 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. 

What is IWFM doing?

In first instance, we are collaborating with partners to provide more guidance across all the above areas. On 13 September, we will provide more information about what good looks like for a safety management system for FMs. You can register for the webinar here. You may also find our recent webinar on structural safety helpful; this covers both the general principles of structural safety and the Building Safety Act 2022 requirements.

We are also working in collaboration with the Building Safety Alliance on a range of guidance and support, including on the golden thread and how to get started, the client competence expectations, and organisational capabilities amongst others. An announcement will be made shortly about the golden thread work.

The Building Safety Alliance announced earlier this week that they are to become a charity. We have been instrumental in the inception of the organisation and now this transition. Our CEO, Linda Hausmanis, commented:

‘As a proud founder of the Building Safety Alliance, we are pleased to continue supporting the organisation’s transition to a charity. We applaud its ambition of developing greater collaboration towards a safer built environment and commend its independent, not-for-profit approach to coordinating the drive for culture change and greater competence. We’re only at the beginning of the journey, but we are excited about what can be delivered with collaboration and cooperation.’

Here are the Regulations which were published in mid-August:  

  • The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023   
  • The Building Regulations (Higher-Risk Building Procedures) (England) 2023    

All of the Regulations can be found here: The Building Safety Act: secondary legislation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

Alongside these, the UK government also published the responses to the relevant consultations which were held last summer. The government response to the consultations can be found here: 

Return to listing