19 July 2021
Building safety – a seismic change in regulatory expectations
Debbie Larner
Head of Practice, CIH
IT WAS certainly a landmark moment when the Building Safety Bill was introduced in the House of Commons at the beginning of this month. For our sector, this was a significant and concrete step towards a framework that would properly protect residents and set out clearly the responsibilities of landlords and their contractors.
As the bill was launched, MHCLG said that what this all meant was ‘lasting generational change, setting out a clear pathway on how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe’. I think that’s a fair summary.
This is a seismic change in regulatory expectations. The draft bill promises improved compliance processes, with tougher penalties for those who break the rules. It shifts the emphasis of the compliance regime, passing the duty to the provider to make the argument that a building is safe.
It also demands that developers belong to a New Homes Ombudsman scheme. The new requirement for a ‘golden thread’ of information, with safety considered at every stage of a building’s lifetime – including during the earliest stage of the planning process – is very welcome. As is its proposal that improvements in building safety and performance standards will apply to ALL buildings – not just those as defined ‘in scope’.
Crucially, we know little as yet about timings and transition periods.
However, there are several issues that must still be resolved as parliament works its way through the bill from this coming autumn onwards.
There is, for instance, little mention of individual and organisational competency, or a formal register of ‘competent people’, something I know many in the sector would welcome – it would fill significant gap that has been plainly revealed during the Grenfell Inquiry.
We also need to know more about whether there will be powers of access, what ‘lawfully resides’ means in practice, and who the ‘accountable person’ will be in complex ownership models.
And crucially, we know little as yet about timings and transition periods. At the very least, we could benefit from interim guidance to support the sector ahead of legislation.
Then there’s the issue of money. The best estimate from the bill’s impact assessment is that overall, putting it into practice will cost around 6.8bn – about £442m a year over 15 years. The Early Adopters Group has estimated that the ongoing costs of the new regulatory system could be as much as £90,000 per building in scope, per year.
We can’t start getting our homes in order too soon.
Based on 52 buildings in scope a London borough council has estimated compliance costs of around £75m in years 1-5 with costs of around £15,000-35,000 per building for the safety case review alone; 14 of our largest housing associations are projecting safety bills of £1.19bn between now and 2025.
At CIH, our focus is to help the sector prepare as best it can – and as early as it can, regardless of what we know will be a lengthy legislative process. Some of the coming change we already know, even if the brushstrokes are broad, and there’s a lot that can be done ahead of time.
We can:
• Establish which of the buildings we manage will be in scope.
• Be sure all our buildings have been assessed and that its clear what, if any, remedial works need to be done to make them safe; put in place building safety risk assessments and collate all the evidence needed for the safety case.
• Start working with staff and residents now. Develop a training and awareness strategy, begin to develop a resident engagement strategy – one for each building in scope.
• Determine now who the accountable person will be for each building.
• Plan for the creation of the new role of Building Safety Manager, including drafting a job description.
• Understand how the source, quality and compliance of materials can be traced and audited.
The timeline for the new legislation from this point on is a long one. It’s likely to have made its way through both Houses of Parliament by this time next year and receive Royal Assent in autumn 2022. We expect the various transition periods set by the bill to be around seven years, taking us to ‘fully live’ legislation by 2030. It’s going to take time and be costly – and we can’t start too soon on getting our homes in order.
