Building Safety Act 2022: Latest Amendments To The Building Regulations

Published date18 June 2022
Subject MatterReal Estate and Construction, Construction & Planning, Real Estate
Law FirmGowling WLG
AuthorMs Sue Ryan, Andrew Litchfield, Gemma Whittaker and Helen Arthur

At the end of April we told you about the key things you need to know about the changes introduced in theBuilding Safety Act 2022.

The secondary legislation that will enable a number of those provisions will be put in place over the next 12-18 months, but in the meantime, the Government has just published its response to the results of a consultation on the ambit of building safety1 which took place between January and May 2020.

This consultation proposed changes to requirements of the Building Regulations (introduced in December 2018 by way of theBuilding (Amendment) Regulations 2018) which in effect banned the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of certain buildings and in specified attachments to the external walls. This consultation sought views and supporting evidence on the following:

  • Changing the building types covered by the ban
  • Changing the height threshold of the ban
  • Ban on the use of metal composite materials with a polyethylene core
  • Attachments to buildings
  • Changing the list of exemptions
  • Changing the performance requirements of the ban

There were 854 respondents to the consultation comprising of individuals and organisation representatives with, it appears, limited supporting evidence provided to either support or reject the proposed changes.

Having had two years to review these responses, the Government has concluded its deliberations and has introduced theBuilding etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 20222(theAmendments), which come into force on 1 December 2022.

The summary of changes are as follows:

Buildings in scope of the ban - changing the building types

The consultation proposed including hotels, hostels and boarding houses within the scope of the ban. This proposal was supported by 38% of respondents with the sleeping and evacuation risks being acknowledged. And accordingly, hotels, hostels and boarding houses will be brought within scope of the current ban set at 18 metres. This means the external walls of these buildings will need to meet the same performance requirements (A2-s1, d0 or better) as the higher risk buildings already covered by the ban e.g. high rise residential and student accommodation.

Changing the height threshold

The ban currently applies to buildings with a top storey more than 18 metres above ground level. There have been calls to change this height threshold following fires in buildings just under 18 metres. The consultation proposed lowering the height threshold of the ban, to...

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