What is the impact of the Building Safety Act’s transitional period ending?

The new regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings came into force on 1 October 2023 with a six-month transition period which came to an end on Saturday. What does this mean? Well, it makes working out what needs to be done a lot easier for new building works being designed and carried out after the 6 April, but still, there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding within the industry on how this new process and the new appointments are to be implemented.

There has been very little guidance from the Government or the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) on the actual practicalities of how the industry is to implement the new processes, so as is the norm, it is down to the industry to try its best to interpret how it believes the Government and BSR want this to be incorporated within the build process.

So, what is this Building Safety Act?

The one theme that has been dominating our industry for the last year is the seeming complexities around the Building Safety Act. Essentially it is a new piece of legislation, parts of which came into force back in 2022, that introduces major changes to the regulation of ALL controlled building work. It is a big piece of work … running to some 229 pages, in 6 parts, with 171 sections, and 11 schedules.

The Act creates a new regulatory body within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the BSR and introduces the statutory registration of all building control inspectors (public and private sector), it creates a category of “Higher Risk Buildings” (HRBs) which are subject to a new regime during their design/construction and throughout their operation. There are also provisions for construction product standards, a New Homes Ombudsman scheme, as well as changes to the Architects Act.

Most of the changes have been enacted through a series of new secondary legislation.

We’ve tried to distil the information into a two-page FAQ document, covering questions such as “I hear a lot about the “Golden Thread”, what is this?” and “When do I need to comply with these new requirements?”.

We’ve also gone into detail on Building Regulations High Rise Building Gateway Process and Required Documentation and information on the new duty holder regime.

The BSA also introduces a new safety regime for High Rise Building in use/occupation.

We encourage you to contact us if you require any further information, guidance or assistance with the Building Safety Act and Building Regulations regime.