Fire Safety
What is the Building Safety Act 2022?
Read more on the requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022 which received Royal Assent on 28th April 2022.
Fire Safety
The Building Safety Act 2022 is designed to give residents and homeowners more rights, powers, and protections – so homes across the country are safer.
The act was introduced following the tragic failures in building safety that led to the Grenfell Tower Fire and subsequent deaths of seventy-two people. It aims to take forward a fundamental reform of the building safety system and address the issues identified by Dame Judith Hackitt DBE in her independent review, Building a Safer Future.
It overhauls existing regulations, creating lasting change and makes clear how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe.
The Act creates three new bodies to provide effective oversight of the new regime: the Building Safety Regulator, the National Regulator of Construction Products and the New Homes Ombudsman.
Together these changes mean owners will manage their buildings better, and the home-building industry has the clear, proportionate framework it needs to deliver more, and better, high-quality homes.
The Building Safety Act includes several measures intended to make buildings and residents safer and is divided into six parts:
Residents in high-rise buildings will have more say in how their building is kept safe and will be able to raise building safety concerns directly to the owners and managers of their buildings known as accountable persons and responsible for repairing the common parts of a higher-risk building.
The accountable person(s) will have a duty to listen to them. If residents feel their concerns are being ignored, they can raise them with the Building Safety Regulator.
Duty holders such as the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor under the Act will be required to manage building safety risks, with clear lines of responsibility during the design, construction and completion of all buildings.
Accountable persons will need to demonstrate that they have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks in the higher-risk buildings for which they are responsible.
Those who do not meet their obligations may face criminal charges. The Building Safety Act is also clear that building owners and landlords will need to contribute to the costs of fixing their own buildings.
The Act will create a clear, proportionate framework for the design, construction, and management of safer, high-quality homes in the years to come.
It will strengthen the construction products regulatory regime, with new requirements to make sure all construction products on the UK market are safe for their intended use, with a National Regulator for Construction Products to monitor and enforce this.
There will be a new developer tax, and a levy on developers will ensure that industry contribute to setting things right. New rights to redress will ensure those responsible for contributing to the building safety crisis are in line for costs to rectify their mistakes.
For more information, view guidance on the Government website or review other UK standards and regulations.
*Please note: The above summary is based on FireAngel’s interpretation of The Building Safety Act 2021, always refer to the standard for specific guidance
