Hywel Davies is Technical Director of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
On 17 August, the government published new regulations for higher risk buildings (HRBs) and major changes to building regulations which will allow more parts of the Building Safety Act to be fully implemented in England l October 1, 2023. These changes, which apply what has been explained and consulted above, will fundamentally reform the way design and construction appointments are made.
The Construction (Amendment etc) (England) Regulations 2023 introduce new competency requirements and duty holders for both professionals and clients. Part 2A includes 17 new regulations covering the duties, competence and conduct of clients, designers and contractors. Part 2A also creates the new roles and duties of the designer and principal contractor, which apply to all buildings and are different from the existing design and construction management duties.
“The changes are not by asking the construction industry to build to different standards, they are telling it to behave to different standards.”
For those responsible for the management of a busy HRB or to manage building works in, or to create, a new HRB, there are two new sets of regulations. The Buildings (Procedures for Higher Risk Buildings) (England) Regulations 2023 sets out the new building control system for HRBs. Meanwhile, the Higher Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks, etc.) (England) Regulations 2023 cover the operational management of all HRBs in occupation.
The The new rules require all parties working on HRBs to provide evidence that the facility meets the requirements of structural and fire safety regulations. To do this, the Building Safety Act divides the life cycle of a building into three “gateways” (planning and design; construction and completion), to ensure that building safety is taken into account at each stage and to ensure that the original intent of the design is preserved and changes managed through a formal review process widely known as the “golden thread”.
What has changed?
The impact of these changes will be significant. For example, from October 1, it is a requirement that HRB designs must be completed before construction can begin. Is Schematics with incomplete design elements or “contractor to finalize this design” notes are no longer accepted. While this requirement is not an absolute ban on design and build for HRB projects, it is very close to one because the full design must be submitted for approval from the outset.
Similarly, value engineering should also largely disappear from the HRB lexicon. More often than not, this is the stage where the cohesion of the design begins to disappear from the finished product. Between gateways two (construction) and three (completion), there will be mandatory change control procedures. If a decision is made to change any component within the building, this change will need to be recorded and, depending on the type of change, the regulator may also need to be informed.
Also, contractors should be aware that if they, a client, or the designer want to make a major change once construction begins, work will have to stop until the regulator approves the change, and the regulator it will have weeks, not days. , to give an opinion In addition, the onus will be on those proposing the change to demonstrate that the proposed change complies with building regulations; it is not for the regulator to pick apart the design to find out if the change can be applied.
The intention of all this is, in some ways, very similar to the intentions of Egan i Latham, both were looking for internships to change the industry. The difference now is that these changes are covered by legislation; they are not guidelines or recommendations – they are the law.
No surprises
Before people start throwing up their hands and complaining that these regulations are too complicated to implement in such a short amount of time, the changes shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone in the industry. They were first called for by Dame Judith Hackitt’s review more than five years ago, and then confirmed when the government accepted all its recommendations at the end of 2018. Further guidance was included in the consultation on the implementation of the report in 2019 before the approval of the building. The Security Act introduced enabling powers for these procedures in 2022.
In any case, tThese are largely procedural changes because the schemes had always been thought to comply with the Building Regulations. The sole purpose of these changes is to implement a much more rigorous process to demonstrate compliance that should have always been achieved.
Will the deadline be met? Not immediately, because the way it works for many in construction is to wait for regulations to come into effect and then play catch-up. All HRBs, for example, must register by the end of September. By the end of July, it was reported that 20% had started the process and only about 1,500, or one in 10, had completed it.
Professional bOrganizations such as CIBSE are working together with the Construction Leadership Council and its constituent bodies to provide more guidance to the industry on these regulations. It is about helping clients, designers and main contractors and responsible persons to meet the new obligations in a safe, reasonable and proportionate way.
Changes are not asking the construction industry to build to different standards, they are telling it to behave to different standards.
The industry has an opportunity to demonstrate a willingness to embrace these reforms and rebuild public confidence in what we do. It won’t be easy or quick, but it has to be done.
