The Building Safety Bill

The Building Safety Bill aims to give residents and homeowners more rights, powers and protections – making homes across the country safer. This will overhaul regulations, by setting out a clear pathway on how residential buildings should be constructed,  maintained and made safe.

It also sets out the framework to improve compliance, with tougher penalties for those who break the rules and mandates developers to belong to a New Homes Ombudsman scheme. Residents in high-rise buildings will have more say in the management of their building. They will be able to raise building safety concerns directly to the owners and managers of buildings, who will have a duty to listen to them. If residents feel concerns are being ignored, they can raise them with the Building Safety Regulator.

All homeowners will also have more than twice the amount of time, from 6 to 15 years, to claim compensation for sub-standard construction work. This will apply retrospectively – meaning that, properties built up to 15 years prior to this change coming into effect will be able to bring a claim for compensation for defective work.

To access the Government Press Release click here

For the Building Safety Bill and related documents click here

Draft regulations (higher-risk buildings, duty holders and competence) can be found here

Government has also published its response to the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill, which can be found here