The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent on the 28th of April 2022.
It is important to remember that the BSA does not replace the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015). Compliance with the requirements of the BSA will be in addition to the compliance with the statutory duties already set out in CDM 2015. Confusingly, the names of the different duty holders in each set of regulations have the same name title, despite the roles being significantly different.
The BSA is aimed at High Rise Residential Buildings (HRRB) over 18m tall or 7 storeys’, whichever occurs first. However, industry discussions indicate the intention is to drive this into lower rise multi-occupied buildings in the future.
The introduction of the BSA set out rights for residents and homeowners, powers and protections – making HRRB’s across the country safer (note slightly differing Regulations will apply to Scotland and Wales also). A number of other associated statutory regulations are also being revised as part of these reforms including an independent review of the Building Regulations and Fire Safety Order 2005, creating lasting generational change, setting out a clear pathway on how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe. For developers, designers, contractors and building safety managers, this will bring significant change to the industry, and government spokesperson the “biggest changes to building safety for nearly 40 years.”
Much of the Act requires secondary legislation to bring the provisions into force and many aspects of the regime will be taken forward through secondary legislation. The Act’s provisions will extend and apply in the main to England only. Part 2 of the Act establishes the new Building Safety Regulator [BSR] within the Health and Safety Executive [HSE] and sets out its objectives and functions.
The Act names the Health and Safety Executive as the regulator.
Changes to building regulations in clause 32 of the Building Safety Act 2022 will enable the building control procedures for building work on buildings that are not in scope of the new regime for Higher-risk buildings [HRBs] to be improved.
Keelagher Okey Klein will continue to keep our clients and industry colleagues appraised as the situation develops.