The Building Safety Regulator has pledged to inspect all buildings with unsafe cladding during its first assessment year.
In its first strategic plan, the regulator said that by the end of its second year of operation, which ends in April 2025, it should have assessed around a fifth of the highest-risk buildings, which represent the 37 percent of homes affected.
Higher risk buildings are defined as those with two or more residential units that are at least 18 meters or seven stories high.
Inspections will be prioritized by risk, he said, and any building with unremedied aluminum composite material (ACM) cladding will be assessed in the first year, regardless of height or number of dwellings.
Planned inspections by building control bodies will also start next year, with around a fifth of all local authorities and building control authorities to be inspected and acted upon.
By the end of the regulator’s first three years of operation, in April 2026, it hopes to have inspected two in five higher-risk buildings, which make up 65% of residential homes.
Any work to repair dangerous cladding should be finished or underway by then, the watchdog said, with action against non-compliant buildings and landlords.
The regulator, which is part of the Health and Safety Executive, was set up after the Grenfell disaster to raise safety and performance standards for buildings and oversee a strict new regime for high-rise residential buildings.
HSE director of building safety Philip White said the three-year plan set out the guiding principles set out to keep the regulator focused on its priorities for delivering the new system.
“Our goal is for people to see fundamental changes in the safety and standard of all buildings and increased competition among industry professionals that raises those standards year on year,” he said.
In a foreword to the plan, the secretary of state for housing, housing and communities, Michael Gove, said the system regulating buildings should be “practical and understandable”.
“The regulator must lead the sector to create a built environment fit for the future,” he said. “This first three-year strategic plan is a significant moment in this mission. It looks forward and establishes a solid foundation on which the regulator can build its ambition in the coming years.”
