This Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) consultation builds on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. It proposes fundamental reform of building safety requirements so that residents are safe, and feel safe, in their homes.

The proposals span 5 broad areas:

• the scope of the new regime
• the concept of dutyholders who have clear responsibilities throughout a building’s design, construction and occupation
• giving residents a stronger voice in the system and ensuring their concerns are not ignored
• plans for a new building safety regulator to provide oversight of the new building safety regulatory regime
• strengthened enforcement and sanctions to deter non-compliance with the new regime

The BSA response is supportive of strengthening accountabilities and the regulatory regime for building safety. Both for the general principle of helping people to feel safer in their homes and to be able to get redress if things go wrong, but also because it will give lenders more confidence that there will be remediation if any of the properties they lend against are found to be unsafe.

We note that it is important for the Government to be mindful that if the regime is to work in practice, it must have buy-in from the insurance industry in order for duty holders and responsible persons to be able to get affordable indemnity insurance.

The BSA is also working with MHCLG on the issues of ACM cladding in high-rise buildings, and on designing a warranty protocol for Modern Methods of Construction. We highlight the need to ensure that the regulatory framework is consistent with the outputs from both of these strands of work.