Last edited 19 Jun 2024

Building Safety Act 2022

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[edit] Purpose of the Act

The Building Safety Act 2022 is a legislative framework designed to enhance the safety of buildings, in particular high-rise and multi-occupancy residential buildings. It is a significant piece of legislation that arouse in response to the Independent review of the building regulations and fire safety, also known as the Hackitt review after its Chair Dame Judith Hackitt which was established after the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

The Building Safety Act was effective from April 2, with key provision from October 2023. Its purpose is to ensure that all buildings and in particular high-rise buildings are designed, constructed, and managed to be safe for occupants. The Act itself provides a legal framework regulations and guidance related to building safety including fire safety and structural integrity, which apply responsibilities to owners, managers, designers, contractors and developers in England and Wales.

Key aims of the Act and supporting regulation are to improve transparency and accountability of building safety, through clearer definition of the roles of what are known as Responsible Persons (RPs), their level of competency, their coordination and theor co-operation. To accurately record all fire safety information and processes throughout a building’s lifespan in what is known as the Golden thread of information and make this transparent and accessible. Finally to give powers to enforcement authorities to take action against and entities involved in the process that are non-compliant.

The Building Safety Act delivers protections for qualifying leaseholders from the costs associated with remediating historical building safety defects, and a toolkit of measures that will allow those responsible for building safety defects to be held to account. It also overhauls existing regulations, making clear how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe.

The Act creates three new bodies to provide oversight of the new regime:

The owners and managers of buildings, known as accountable persons, will need to demonstrate that they have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks in the higher-risk buildings for which they are responsible. If they do not meet their obligations they may face criminal charges.

Residents in high-rise buildings will be able to raise building safety concerns with accountable persons who will have a duty to listen to them. If residents feel their concerns are being ignored, they can raise them with the Building Safety Regulator.

Principal Designer and Principal Contractor under the Act will be required to manage building safety risks, with clear lines of responsibility during design, construction and completion.

There is an list of articles providing additional information on the page: Building Safety Act related articles.

[edit] History of the Act

The Building Safety Bill 2019-20 was announced in the Queen’s Speech on 19 December 2019 following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. Its intention was to put in place new and enhanced regulatory regimes for building safety and construction products, and to ensure residents have a stronger voice in the system.

It was expected that the Building Safety Bill would:

The draft Building Safety Bill was published on 20 July 2020. Ref https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-building-safety-bill

A ‘final’ version of the Bill was published on 5 July 2021. Ref https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-regulator-at-heart-of-building-safety-overhaul

In April 2022, the government announced a series of amendments to the Bill, this included scrapping the role of Building Safety Manager.

On 28 April 2022, the Bill received Royal Assent, becoming law as the Building Safety Act 2022.

However, many of the provisions set out in the Act will not come into force immediately as secondary legislation is required. A transition plan has been published at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/999356/Timeline_for_Transition_Plan.pdf.

This sets out a timetable of 12 to 18 months for different provisions of the Act.

Eddie Tuttle, Director of Policy, External Affairs and Research at CIOB said: "...concerns remain that some of the recent amendments, such as removing the duty to appoint a Building Safety Manager, will lead to a lack of clarity over the right competencies and training for those in the “accountable persons” role and potential inconsistency in the implementation of Building Safety management regimes."

The Building Safety Act is available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/contents/enacted

Many of the provisions of the Act came into force on 28 June 2022. Ref https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leaseholders-protected-from-unfair-cladding-costs-as-governments-building-safety-reforms-come-into-force

See also: Fire Safety Act.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

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