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New building safety laws to have dramatic impact on housing sector
Sweeping building safety reforms unveiled by ministers this week will have major ramifications for social landlords and residents alike.
Draft legislation intended to solve the systemic issues that led to the Grenfell Tower fire will introduce a Building Safety Regulator, require building safety managers to make sure high rises are up to standard and overhaul the building control process.
Failure to comply with the new rules could lead to unlimited fines or prison sentences of up to two years.
Amy Simmons, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, said the tough sanctions will be “one of the big issues for the sector”.
She warned that balancing the requirements of the new regime with other fire safety legislative changes and outstanding remediation work will be “quite challenging in terms of prioritisation of risk”.
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Paul Mooney, service director of asset management at Salix Homes, said the bill represents “the start of the most important phase of the process post-Grenfell” and stressed that the government must give the sector time “to get up to speed”.
Mark Everard, chair of the G15’s asset directors group and executive director of property at Metropolitan Thames Valley, also said transition arrangements are key.
“If the view was all of this has to be done across your entire estate within the next three years I don’t think there would be a single provider that wouldn’t fall off their chair,” he added.
An impact assessment said the full changes will cost £6bn in total over 15 years – with building safety managers alone costing landlords up to £10,000 per block.
The bill will also introduce a separate “building safety charge” for leaseholders to pay for fire safety works.
Justin Bates, a barrister at Landmark Chambers, said the change will have “huge and negative implications for leaseholders”.
He predicted that flat owners could face “a wave of huge demands”, while some landlords may wait until the charge is introduced before carrying out fire safety works.
UKCAG, which represents leaseholders affected by the cladding scandal, immediately demanded that the bill be amended so that residents are not financially liable for building defects.
“Any other outcome would be a shocking betrayal of the government’s repeated promises to suffering residents,” the group said.
Mark London, partner at Devonshires, said the bill contains a “hugely dramatic” change for council building control departments, which will see them appoint both qualified building inspectors and building control approvers.
“The government is saying to local authorities that they are going to have to take the task of building control extremely seriously,” he added.
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