Apartments and offices sitting next to a body of water

Building Safety Hub

Supporting building and fire safety excellence in tall residential buildings in England

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  • New Impact Assessment Published by DLHUC

    The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLHUC) last week published its response to consultations on several regulations under the Building Safety Act, including provisions for the ‘golden thread’, information needed to attain a building-assessment certificate and duties to engage residents.

    The government, alongside secondary legislation to bring the regulations into law, published its final impact assessment showing costs of the new regime, which applies to blocks at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys and contain at least two residential units.

    The impact assessment sets out three cost estimates for the industry.

    Its ‘low’ estimate is a cost to industry of £1.24bn over 15 years, its central, or ‘best’ estimate is £1.82bn and its ‘high’ estimate is £2.9bn.

    The assessment shows new rules requiring building owners or managers to produce safety cases for buildings will be the costliest area, with a central estimate of £830.9m.

    • Building Safety Act
    • Legislation, Regulations & Guidance

  • RAAC: Guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers

    RAAC is a building material used in some buildings to form roof planks, wall panels, and sometimes floor planks, between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s.
     
    If properly designed, manufactured, in good condition and with good bearing, RAAC installations are considered safe. However, the panels can creep and deflect over time, and this can be exacerbated by water penetration. A more recent incident indicated that if they have insufficient bearing and their structural integrity is compromised, they can fracture and collapse with little or no warning.  
     
    The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)  have issued guidance about RAAC to enable building managers and their consultants to manage the situation, established a RAAC working study group, and created a list of professionally qualified structural engineers (Chartered or Incorporated Members) who have declared their experience in providing technical solutions for managing RAAC planks. 

    Read more guidance and FAQ's from IStructE here

    • Structural Safety
    • RAAC

  • Building Safety Consultation Responses

    DLUHC has published a new portal where all building safety consultations and the Government's responses can be found. It will also publish all new and open consultations.

     

     

    • Building Safety Act
    • Consultation & Government Responses

  • Fire Safety Reform Programme Update From The Home Office

    The Home Office has published the second of its Fire Safety Reform Team’s update. 

    This update covers the following issues: 

    • Upcoming changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 
    • Monitoring the impact of reforms to-date 
    • Promoting the fire safety reforms 
    • Supporting work on Fire Risk Assessor capacity and capability 
    • An update on the Fire Safety Guidance Programme

    Download the 2nd bimonthly update here. 

    If you would like to be added to the distribution list or if you have any general questions then please feel free to email firesafetyreform@homeoffice.gov.uk.

    • Fire Safety

  • Leaseholder protections amendments

    This guidance provides stakeholders with a plain-English explanation of the implications of the latest leaseholder protections amendments in the Building Safety Act 2022.

    Introduction


    1. Since the leaseholder protections came into force in the summer of 2022, DLUHC has engaged extensively with leaseholders, landlords and others affected, such as lenders and conveyancers, to monitor compliance with, and the operation of, the Building Safety Act (the Act) and the leaseholder protections.

    2. The Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections etc.) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/895) (referred to in this guidance as “the amending regulations”) make amendments to The Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/711) and The Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections) (Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/859) to ensure they have effect in the way originally intended.

    3. The amending regulations are an important step in improving the implementation of the leaseholder protections and provide further detail.

    Click here to read the full guidance.


     

    • Building Remediation
    • Leaseholder Protections
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