DLUHC opens consultations on new building control and in-occupation regimes

News

Last week, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) published two consultations:  

• Implementing the new Building Control Regime for Higher-Risk buildings and wider changes to the Building Regulations for all buildings  

This consultation focuses mainly on the changes that will be made to the Building Regulations to implement the new building safety reforms. These changes will be made using powers in the Building Act 1984 as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022. It will apply to all buildings, not just higher-risk buildings, and is relevant for FMs as it could impact them whenever building works are needed.

There are 12 sections to the consultation, from competence to additional requirements for higher-risk buildings and establishing better record keeping in higher-risk buildings (golden thread of information).

• The In-occupation Regime for Occupied Higher-Risk Buildings 

This consultation seeks views on policy proposals for the in-occupation phase for higher-risk buildings in scope of the new, more stringent regime. It covers, amongst others, the duties applicable to the Accountable Person, certification duties, safety case approach and reporting, golden thread contents, and how the golden thread is managed and stored and key building information.

The consultations, which are open until 12 October 2022, are part of a series which provide technical proposals to support the law as set out in the Building Safety Act 2022; in essence, setting out the detail of how the Act will operate and be enforced.   

The DLUHC is keen to gather a wide range of views to support its policy development process and the content of (secondary) regulations before they are subject to parliamentary scrutiny. 

IWFM and its Life Safety Working Group will be feeding into the consultations through a variety of routes. The Building Safety Alliance, of which IWFM is a founding member, is due to organise roundtables on the subject with the view to collecting occupation-wide views, outlining the challenges and potential solutions for best practice.

Please get in touch with [email protected] if you want to engage in the Building Safety Alliance roundtables or feed into the consultation feedback process.