In the summer, I attended a talk at Leeds Beckett University, hosted by GMI Construction Group, about how the Building Safety Act 2022, has and will continue to impact future developments.
The catalyst for these changes came after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 – a case that the speaker, Paul Nash, is very familiar with. Paul was the Chair of a working group on procurement as part of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, that was put together in the wake of Grenfell. He also sits on the Industry Safety Steering Group.
The talk covered what buildings are considered to be ‘high risk’ under the Act. This includes buildings above 18 meters in height, but interestingly also buildings like hospitals & care homes that may be smaller in stature. Different building regulators are required for both high-risk & non-high-risk buildings and under the Act, three different committees have also been formed to help steer the safety of developments: the building advisory committee, the industry competence committee, and residents’ panels.
Paul then took us through changes in assessment; fire safety regulations will now be integrated into the planning stage, meaning work cannot start on projects until building regulators are content that all regulations have been met. The amount of time for these checks is also crucial for developers to consider, as it can take up to 12 weeks for building control approval to assess a development, and a further 8 weeks to determine if a certificate of completion (which must also be obtained) can be given.
On top of this, the client must be made fully aware of all safety & compliance requirements. Any changes to the original building control safety regulations must be logged. Those accountable for high-risk buildings must also prepare a residents engagement strategy, allowing residents to participate in the building safety decisions. Failure to comply with safety regulations, or failure to update any changes can be met with fines or potentially prosecution.
It’s not just new developments that are under evaluation. A retrospective act has been created, the Defective Premises Act for High-Risk Buildings 2022, which will evaluate development built thirty years prior to June 2022.
To help curb costs, a building safety levy has been created to help cover the cost of repairing building safety defects for all new dwellings. Training assessment schemes, that are both RIBA & CIOB certified, have also been made available to help people in the building & planning sector understand these changes. Whilst developers may see delays and rises in cost due to these changes, it’s great to see that safety is now at the forefront of the building process and something can be learnt from the tragic events of Grenfell – with it hopefully never to be repeated.
Alanah Coulson – Planning and Transport Officer
