A review of the Building Safety Bill

Earlier this week, BIM Academy Director, Dr Graham Kelly took part in a panel discussion on the new Building Safety Bill – a fundamental reform of regulations, brought about in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Graham was invited by Ward Hadaway to join other industry leaders in the field of architecture and engineering for the Fire and the Building Safety Bill – a developer review virtual event.

The focus of the discussion was the purpose and implication of the new Building Safety Bill, specifically the requirements for high-risk buildings at six stories or more.

This new Bill is hailed as delivering ground-breaking reforms, giving residents and homeowners more rights, powers and protections. The Bill has seen an overhaul in regulations, with the intention of creating lasting change by setting out a clear pathway on how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and, most importantly, made safe.

The panel discussion was led by Alistair McDonald, Ward Hadaway’s Strategic Director and Built Environment Team lead, who set out a series of questions on the impact of the new Bill on time, cost and quality for construction projects.

In response, Graham highlighted the work being doing in line with the Golden Thread – the information about a building that allows someone to understand a building and keep it safe – and how information that is collated throughout the design and build phase, and subsequently handed over and maintained during the life of the building, can be used to create a building safety case.

However, this can only be effectively done through the utilisation of a digital platform-based approach. We can no longer rely on paper-based systems to collate information.

There are huge changes and fundamental implications on the competency of people in new roles in order to carry out the new regulations set out in the Bill, and digital adoption is needed at all levels.

As the Bill also sets out a framework to improve compliance, with this comes tougher penalties for those who break the rules, and mandates have been set in place for developers to belong to a New Homes Ombudsman scheme. For this to operate in a productive way, all information on a construction project needs to be held digitally in one collective common data environment.

On each project there must be a nominated individual so that accountability can be held and the key duties that the accountable person should hold are:

• Requirement to register the building with the Building Safety Regulator
• Before occupation, apply for a Building Assurance Certificate, which must be displayed (the Building Assurance Certificate is expected to list the name of the AP and the BSM)
• Assessment of the Building Safety Risks and the Management of the Building Safety Risks
• Create and operate a Building Safety Case and create a Building Safety Case report (expected every five years)
• Operate a Resident Engagement Strategy
• Appoint a Building Safety Manager

The Accountable Person for any occupied higher-risk building will have a duty under the Bill to appoint a Building Safety Manager for their building.

The panel also spoke about the role of the Building Safety Manager and how they lead on operating and maintaining the Building Safety Case.

The Building Safety Manager role is multifaceted and extends beyond Fire Safety into Structural, Gas, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing Safety, Legionella, H&S and so on.

The Bill also states that the Building Safety Manager role is concerned with the planning, managing and monitoring of activity required so that the new duties on the Accountable Person are complied with.

One of the key takeaways for Graham was the positive in this legislation, that alongside the ability to build safer buildings, we can collect, store and maintain other information about our buildings to support the effective maintenance and energy efficiency of our assets.

The Golden Thread allows for information to be collated, stored and shared most effectively and gives a better understanding of what we are building, how to build it and how to run it. In the design stage, this provides detailed information and data to create a digital twin, and through construction to handover we have a fully operational digital record of the building.

The panel concluded that the Bill has formalised the need to maintain complete and comprehensive records and documentation in a digital format for all higher-risk buildings – this now becomes our Golden Thread which enables us to understand how safety is designed into the building and managed throughout its lifecycle.

To understand more about the Building Safety Bill and the Golden Thread, contact Graham at [email protected].