The Building Safety Act was the topic of conversation at the first in a series of roundtable events hosted by the team at Russell Bolton Consulting, discussing the big issues impacting real estate.
The new Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) was created to reform building safety legislation in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster seven years ago. The new regulations came into force on 1st April 2023, backed by a new regulator and a range of new requirements for buildings deemed higher risk. It has changed the way buildings are designed, built and managed and, while the changes have been broadly welcomed by the industry, teething problems are causing a range of challenges that are impacting the delivery of schemes.
Following an excellent presentation delivered by Derek Bradshaw, Head of Professional Services at Keelagher Okey Klein (KOK), developers, funders, architects, contractors and advisors shared their experiences of navigating the BSA, with some common threads emerging.
While the room was broadly positive about the BSA and the ultimate goal of delivering better, safer developments, the continued lack of feedback and clarity around requirements risks delaying construction timeframes.
RBC’s Riyaaz Patel highlighted mixed opinions on the information required saying, “The lack of clarity is a key issue and, as a project manager, I want to be focusing on that clarity on timeframes; it’s difficult for us to programme an entire lifecycle of a job and risk management.”
Better use of technology was also raised, with Torsion Construction’s Ed Wooton and Victoria Millward of Paddock Johnson pointing out the potential to harness data to iron out processes, whether that’s to accelerate HSE responses or aid the flow of information.
At every stage of the process there are various issues that must be addressed in order to secure funding (and maintain investor confidence), while ensuring viability and preventing development stalling. The lack of feedback from the BSR is a sticking point, with numerous anecdotes shared around lengthy waiting times for responses as well as the difficulty fitting the requirements around existing procurement models. The lack of transparency is jarring, with many resorting to looking at redacted rejection letters for insight. With much of the information vague and a large amount of the current detail opinion driven, teams are having to continually revisit the regulations to ensure that their interpretation is correct. All of this has an impact on development, increasing costs and extending construction timeframes.
James Alderson, Director at RBC, called for co-ordinated, robust design in order to plot a path around what can be provided, by when, which then drives confidence.
RBC Managing Director, Russell Bolton expressed his confidence in the end goal, saying “The BSR is overwhelmed but it will get better as they get more resources and are able to communicate better. Ultimately, the BSA will make buildings safer; self-regulation never works and we have a real chance now to modernise.”
Savills’ Adam Mirley agreed, saying “From the point of view of someone involved in viability, this feels like a short-term issue. For the next couple of years, we’ll probably see increased costs but it will bottom out and people will start to accept and figure a way through it.”
His thoughts were echoed by RBC Director Ilyas Patel who believes the new regulations will help to de-risk and deliver a better job.
There was a general consensus that, long-term, the BSA reforms are a positive move, notwithstanding the current frustrations being felt across the industry. Glenbrook’s Jamie Sutton said, “Down the line, we see the BSA as really positive – we understand the commercial benefit and risk benefit in having these discussions pre-contract. The biggest challenge relates to funding streams and the inability to nail down specific timeframes.”
PJ Livesey’s Georgina Lynch highlighted the BSR’s resourcing issues, explaining that, while there is real buy-in from developers, who want to create and build safe homes, the resourcing element is missing and must be addressed urgently to avoid stalled schemes.
While there are undoubtedly many challenges to address in navigating the BSA and getting to grips with the new requirements – along with frustrations around process and the BSR’s resourcing issues – the industry is broadly supportive. The regulator clearly has some work to do to iron out the problems, but it’s positive that the industry is behind the reforms and we will observe with interest as the impact on assets becomes clearer in due course.