New Building Regs published

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has published Regulations under the Building Safety Act 2022, delivering Dame Judith Hackitt's recommendations in her report Building A Safer Future.

The regulations cover the technical detail underpinning the new, more stringent regime for the design and construction of higher-risk buildings, wider changes to the building regulations for all buildings and the details of the new in-occupation safety regime for higher-risk buildings.   

The recently published regulations include:

• The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023,    
• The Building Regulations (Higher-Risk Building Procedures) (England) 2023    
• The Building (Approved Inspectors etc. And Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023    
• The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023   
• The Building Safety Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments etc.) Regulations 2023  

These regulations "will fundamentally reform the way buildings are designed, built and managed to ensure safety of those who live in them," according to the DLUHC. "These Regulations introduce significant reform to building control for all buildings and a new bespoke approach to building control for blocks of flats, hospitals and care homes of 18m or more or seven stories or more under the new Building Safety Regulator," it added. 

The regulations also introduce the new in occupation regime where dutyholders must demonstrate they are proactively engaging with residents on building safety and demonstrate to the building safety regulator that they are managing the building safety risks in their building – fire spread and structural collapse – appropriately.   

"Together, these regulations will deliver real and lasting building safety reform for generations to come," the DLUHC said in a statement to Building Engineer.  

The next sets of regulations related to the new regime will be laid shortly. The Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc) (England) Regulations and the Charges Regulations are due to be laid next month. The former regulations will cover the information that accountable persons for occupied higher-risk buildings need to keep as golden thread information and what information they need to share with residents and other people who are involved in ensuring the safety of the building. The latter will set out the approach to charging by the Building Safety Regulator. 

Alongside the regulations, the responses to the consultations on them which were held last summer have been released. The government response to the consultations can be found here.