After the horror of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, where residents in a UK building lost their lives to a fire, the Building Safety Act set out legislation to make sure nothing of the sort ever happened again. Now that the Act has come into play, how is the industry handling the transition? A new report suggests that there are still growing pains ahead.
A quarter of the built environment is unprepared for the Building Safety legislation, according to the findings from RLB UK and Operance. The survey aimed to examine feedback from the construction industry and how to address key issues.
The legislation has left almost a third of respondents feeling unsure about the viability of its delivery. Thirty-two percent said they felt the industry didn’t have the necessary ‘competent resource’ to deliver the building safety scheme.
A further 23% said that they feel as if the industry as a whole still needs to catch up when it comes to building safety, with 27% of respondents saying they are still unprepared for the changes made by Building Safety legislation.
What is the UK Building Safety Act?
The UK Building Safety Act, which received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, is a comprehensive legislative framework introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017. The Act aims to enhance building safety regulations, particularly for higher-risk buildings (those over 7 storeys high).
The Act establishes the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The BSR is responsible for overseeing the safety and performance of buildings, enforcing building standards, and ensuring the competence of those working in the built environment. An ‘accountable person’ must also be named for each project and be responsible for ensuring building safety and compliance with regulations.
“Everything’s changed, but nothing’s changed. Everyone says the Act is a new thing coming into the industry. It’s not. It’s a new way of doing what you did.”
– David Jones, Director of Education & Training at ICM, Head of Compliance and Competence at NAADUK and Chair of Construction Industry Council London & South-East Region
While the Act helps increase regulatory oversight and enhance safety measures, there are additional cost implications that construction teams must face to comply. Here, perhaps, is the barrier that respondents from the RLB UK report are facing.
What next for building safety?
All building control professionals had to register with the BSR by 1 April 2024, and Building Safety Regulators by 1 October 2023. The 6-month transition scheme came to an end on 6 April 2024, marking the full implementation of the Act.
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