Big News for Fire Safety! The Building Safety Bill sets a clear pathway for the future on how residential buildings should be constructed and maintained.
Strengthening the building safety system and delivering on recommendations made in Dame Judith’s Independent Review, the bill sets out clear duties and responsibilities on those who commission, design, construct and refurbish high-risk buildings as well as those responsible for ensuring buildings are safely managed and occupied.
Press Notice can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-regulator-at-heart-of-building-safety-overhaul
Information relating to the Building Safety Bill
A step in the right direction, giving residents and homeowners more rights, powers and protection in order to make homes across the country safer.
Introduced in the House of Commons on 5th July 2021, this ground-breaking bill sets out the framework to improve compliance, with tougher penalties for those who break the rules.
As well as this, this bill:
- Overhauls Regulations
- Creates lasting generational change
- Sets out a clear pathway on how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe
Find out what this means for Residents, Homeowners, Building Owners and the Built Environment Industry here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/building-safety-bill
Building Fire Safety
The Bill tackles bad practice head on and builds on Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which highlighted a need for significant cultural and regulatory change.
The purpose of the Hackitt review was to make recommendations that will ensure:
- A sufficiently robust regulatory system for the future
- Residents feel that the buildings they live in are safe and remain so
Under the new proposal, the government is more than doubling the amount of time, from 6 to 15 years, that residents can seek compensation for substandard construction work.
The changes will apply retrospectively. This means that residents of a building completed in 2010 would be able to bring proceedings against the developer until 2025.
More information can be found here:
Draft regulations for delegated powers proposed in the Building Safety Bill:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-bill-draft-regulations
The Government’s response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-bill-government-response-to-pre-legislative-scrutiny-by-the-select-committee
Richard Franks
MIFSM DipFD FSIDip
Technical Operations Manager – Pyro Fire Services
Richard’s specialist area is compartmentation (walls and soffit) and fire door surveys, specifically, intrusive inspections in all areas within the buildings, including all risers and produce a fire stopping and compartmentation survey report of identified observations. This background knowledge has been key in helping him to become a highly proficient fire risk assessor and validator, recently achieving the highest level of recognised competence, on the IFSM’s National Accredited Fire Risk Assessors Register at Tier 3 level.
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Speak to our teamKey accreditations
We recognise the importance of maintaining high levels of accreditation as a company, and as individuals. Our certifications include The Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM), The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), and The Fire Industry Association (FIA). We’re third-party accredited by BAFE for Fire Risk Assessments, and our assessors are registered on the IFSM Fire Risk Assessors Register.
