The Industry and Regulators Committee’s report, The Building Safety Regulator: Building a better regulator, was published today and said there was an “urgent need” for the BSR to improve how it operated.
It said there were “consistent and repeated complaints” that it took more than nine months to make decisions on whether construction projects should go ahead, longer than the statutory target of 12 weeks.
The committee said this delayed or disincentivised refurbishments, safety upgrades and the remediation of dangerous cladding, “leaving residents in unsafe buildings for longer and increasing costs for leaseholders”.
The report said this had a “worrying impact” on the delivery of new high-rise buildings for housing and could impact the government’s target to build one-and-a-half million new homes.
The committee found that the BSR did not give applicants enough guidance on how to demonstrate that buildings were safe, and developers said the regulator did not communicate with them clearly.
Aldermore Insights with Jon Cooper: Edition 5 – Feeling enthusiastic about next year’s run-of-the-mill market
Sponsored by Aldermore
It said many applications were being rejected or delayed because of “basic errors” and the inability of applicants to show how they were considering fire and structural safety. The committee said this reflected “poorly” on the construction industry.
In response, the BSR said some in the construction industry had caught up to new requirements faster than others, and requests for further information on the safety of buildings took time and sometimes more resources from the regulator.
The committee said that while the BSR should be clearer and improve its processes, the industry also needed to raise its standards.
The report recommended that the government remove smaller works from the BSR’s approval processes or introduce a streamlined alternative. It also said the same multidisciplinary teams should be allocated to similar buildings and projects built by the same organisations, to improve efficiency and consistency.
Further, the committee suggested that the government provide long-term funding to train new building and fire inspectors.
It does not improve safety to delay remediation
Baroness Taylor of Bolton, chair of the committee, said: “The tragic loss of 72 lives at the Grenfell Tower fire laid bare the urgent need to reform building safety regulation in England, particularly for high-rise buildings. The introduction of the Building Safety Regulator was a necessary and welcome step.
“However, the scale of the delays caused by the BSR has stretched far beyond the regulator’s statutory timelines for building control decisions. This is unacceptable. We welcome that the government and the BSR are now acting to try and make practical improvements, but this will not address the anxiety and frustration that residents and companies have experienced.
“It does not improve safety to delay vital remediation and refurbishments, nor to deter the delivery of new housing in high-rise buildings. We expect to see further action from the government and the BSR to ensure that construction projects in high-rise buildings can be brought forward more quickly, without compromising on vital safety improvements.”
