After months of debate and amendments, the Building Safety Bill received Royal
Assent on Thursday 28 April 2021. The Bill has completed all the
parliamentary stages in both Houses of Parliament and now becomes
an Act of Parliament.
The Act contains over 200 pages with 6 parts and 11 schedules
and is an important milestone which paves the way for the Health
and Safety Executive to establish a new Building Safety Regulator
and the introduction of a more rigorous and robust regulatory
regime for high-rise buildings in England. Social housing landlords
involved in the design, construction and management of buildings in
England will need to prepare for the significant changes introduced
by the Building Safety Act to better protect tenants and residents
of high-rise buildings following the Grenfell fire tragedy.
Those who manage high rise buildings need to start understanding
what a "Safety
Case" is and examine whether the safety measures in
place in their buildings need strengthening to properly protect
residents.
The Act itself is complex and technical, there will be a lot
more detail to follow in secondary legislation which has yet to be
passed with much more to come over the next 18 months, starting
with the registration of high-rise buildings from April 2023 and
the new safety management requirements applying from October
2023.
A number of key changes were made to the Building Safety Bill
during its passage through Parliament including the scrapping of a
provision in the bill requiring each high-rise blocks to have a
dedicated 'building safety manager'. The government's impact
assessment showed the role could cost around £60,000 per block
annually.
The Act also contains a series of protections for leaseholders
including a retrospective right to sue developers for defective
works up to 30 years after a home is completed, along with measures
to shield leaseholders from costs for cladding works.
The Act brings in new duties on building owners to manage
building safety risks, including duties to engage with residents
and a duty to produce a Residents' Engagement Strategy setting out
how they will create opportunities for resident involvement in
decision-making about their building.
In turn, residents will have certain legal obligations to comply
with requests for information and to not act in a way that creates
safety risks.
The Act also brings in several changes to the Regulatory Reform
(Fire Safety) Order 2005, so that the building owner identifies a
"Responsible Person" and they carry out and record fire risk
assessments in full. ARCH has been in discussion with the Home
Office and we understand that regulations under the Fire Safety Act which were expected to
be published in Autumn 2021 are now expected to be introduced
within the next few months, although proposals for Personal
Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) may be subject to further
consultation.
Watch out for more information on the Building Safety Act and
the regulations under the Fire Safety Act in future editions of the
ARCH bulletin.