Sue Ryan
Partner
Article
4
Note
This insight was published prior to the Building Safety Act receiving Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. As such, whilst accurate at the time of publication, its contents may have been superseded by the changes implemented by the Act or its related secondary legislation.
You can find a list of all Gowling WLG articles relating to the Building Safety Act here.
Our article, back in December 2018, "The Ban on combustible Materials in the External Wall of Buildings - what you need to know" identified that since the publishing of the Hackitt Interim Report in December 2017 and the Final Report in May 2018, the Government has been under increasing pressure to revise building regulations post-Grenfell.
Building safety reforms recommended by the Hackitt Report have been included in the Queen's Speech today. The Queen told Parliament that:
"My Ministers will…bring forward laws to implement new building safety standards".
This will take forward government proposals in June 2019 that planned the creation of a new independent building safety regulator.
The background briefing to the Queen's Speech reaffirms the consensus that there needs to be greater accountability and responsibility for building safety. Post-Grenfell, fundamental changes in the regulatory framework for high-rise residential buildings will be required to take forward all 53 of the recommendations from the Hackitt Report.
However, the background briefing explains that the legislation is also expected to go further:
The proposed new framework would mainly apply to England, however it is intended that the legislation will ensure that the management of construction products would have UK-wide coverage.
Whilst a full assessment is required, the Government has estimated that the new building safety regime could affect up to 11,000 high rise buildings which could rise to 15,000 buildings in the next 10 years or so.
Today's speech confirms that, post-Grenfell, building safety remains one of the key issues at the top of the Government's agenda. The framework should provide greater public confidence in high-rise residential buildings and bring about a clearer understanding of the scope of duties and level of accountability for developers, contractors, designers and building owners.
However, the Government does not have a majority in parliament, which could mean that the Bill is voted down. Watch this space.
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