New building safety regulator takes shape

Property managers are about to face a whole new building safety regime...
More details are now emerging about the Government?s new building safety regulator. Last week housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced that the new body is expected to be up and running ?in shadow form? within weeks. Dame Judith Hackitt who chaired the 2018 building safety review launched in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, will now oversee the set -up and transition to the new regulator once the necessary legislation is in place.
The Hackitt Report called for a building safety regulator to be established in the form of a ?joint competency authority? made up of the HSE, local authority building control, and local fire and rescue services. However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has now announced that the new body will be run solely by the HSE. It will use HSE staff but with additional personnel as required. He said the regulator would use ?the infrastructure that HSE has and existing expertise to begin with?. But he added that the new body wouldn't simply be an extension of the HSE. Instead, ?There will be some re-prioritisation at first, but this will be a strong new regulator,? he said.
The new regime will still operate ?through existing local regulators, notably local authority building control teams and fire and rescue authorities? which are expected to carry out building inspections as part of the new safety system that is now being developed.
Legislation to give the new regulator its formal powers is expected to be put to Parliament later in 2020 but the exact timing is yet to be confirmed. So watch this space for future updates.

03/09/2020
Author : Mary-Anne Bowring

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