Extend Building Safety reforms to subcontractors, urges Regulator Chair

Andy Roe, chair of the Shadow Building Safety Regulator (BSR) Board, has called for stronger oversight of subcontractors and other engineering professions to close persistent safety gaps across the construction sector.

Speaking before the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, Roe – former London Fire Commissioner during the Grenfell Tower tragedy – warned that the current subcontracting system "still holds great danger" and urged that building safety reforms should extend beyond building control to cover other key technical and engineering roles.

Roe, now non-executive chair of the new Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) board that has assumed the BSR’s functions from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said that professional regulation and registration should be expanded to include "other engineering professions and other critical roles inside construction."

"We need perhaps to get to a place where we understand all of the different professional roles within the construction industry, and, working with the industry, get back to a place where we both regulate and register them," he told the committee. "I think the industry themselves would welcome that."

Roe suggested that the BSR was examining licensing models used internationally, where regulators assess the competence and risk management systems of organisations as a whole.

Such models, he said, could help establish a “commonly understood relationship” between the regulator and the sector, driving efficiency and allowing oversight to focus on the highest-risk activities.

He also indicated that some of these measures could require legislative changes, potentially paving the way for a single construction regulator overseeing all critical professions involved in building safety.

The committee session, held on 28 October at the Palace of Westminster, scrutinised the BSR’s performance and its ongoing backlog of 91 cases involving 33,000 housing units awaiting Gateway 2 approval.

Under the Building Safety Act, the BSR must respond to Gateway 2 applications within 12 weeks – yet a 2024 Freedom of Information request showed that only four of 62 applications were decided within that timeframe.

Roe admitted the median time to determination is currently 43 weeks nationally, extending to 48 weeks in London, attributing the delays partly to the regulator’s early operational model and its reliance on local multidisciplinary teams.

To improve performance, Roe said the regulator has introduced account managers to oversee portfolios of cases, identify inconsistencies, and strengthen relationships with developers and local authorities.

These individuals will not take regulatory decisions but will act as strategic liaisons, improving communication between applicants and the regulator’s decision-making teams.

"It’s a relationship role where we can both, helpfully, at a system level, hold applicants to account – but they reasonably can also hold us to account," Roe explained.

For professional engineers and subcontractors, Roe’s comments signal a potential widening of formal competency requirements across the built environment.
If adopted, this could mean that mechanical, structural, and fire engineers, as well as specialist contractors and building services professionals, may face registration or licensing similar to building control inspectors – including mandatory competence assessments and continuing professional development obligations.

Such changes would align with the post-Grenfell focus on systemic accountability, ensuring that every professional contributing to a building’s design, construction, or maintenance can demonstrate the competence expected under the Building Safety Act.

The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee is expected to publish its final report on the inquiry in December. Its findings could shape the next phase of building safety reform – and signal a shift toward a more unified system of professional regulation that reaches deep into engineering, subcontracting and specialist roles.