Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) requirements for checks from the Building Safety Regulator and (b) other requirements contained in provisions of the Building Safety Act on the time taken for construction.

Through the Building Safety Act, the Government is introducing a more stringent regulatory regime in design and construction for new high-rise residential buildings, care homes and hospitals which are 18 metres or more in height, or at least seven storeys (‘higher-risk’ buildings).

The intention is to strengthen regulatory oversight of higher-risk building work and provide the home-building industry the clear framework it needs to get things right before work begins and deliver more high-quality, safe homes, with clear responsibilities on those undertaking design and construction work. This approach should reduce additional time and costs at later stages and the need to correct non-compliant or defective work.

The Government has made an assessment of the potential impact of the requirements of the new building control regime for higher-risk buildings. These can be found in the Impact Assessment that was published when the Act was scrutinised in Parliament: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3021/publications.