The Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety,
chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt, has recommended introduction ofa
new regulatory framework to improve building safety and to rebuild
trust among residents of high-rise buildings.
In her final report published on 17 May 2018, Dame Judith sets
out a list of some 53 recommendations around a new regulatory
framework which she says should apply in the first instance to
residential properties which are 10 or more storeys high - referred
to in her report as Higher Risk Residential Buildings (HRRBs).
The report and its recommendations are framed around a series of
10 themes:
- Parameters and principles of a new regulatory framework
- Design, construction and refurbishment
- Occupation and maintenance
- Residents' voice
- Competence
- Guidance and monitoring to support building safety
- Products
- Golden thread of building information
- Procurement and supply
- International examples
Some of the key elements of this new regulatory framework
include:
- The establishment of a new regulator - a Joint Competent
Authority(JCA) comprising Local Authority Building Standards, Fire
& Rescue Authorities and the Health & Safety Executive
based on a full cost recovery model. (Recommendation 1.2)
- A system ofmandatory incident reportingsimilar to that employed
by the Civil Aviation Authority (Recommendation 1.4)
- The allocation by Government of broad responsibilities to
Clients, Principal Designers and Principal Contractors responsible
for HRRBs (Recommendation 2.2 and Table 2).
- The creation & maintenance of relevant information
including:
- A digital record
- A fire & emergency file
- Full plans; and
- A Construction Control Plan (Recommendation 2.3)
- A series of 3 "gateways" before occupation of any new HRRBs can
commence:
- First gateway - the Local Planning Authority should be required
in law to consult with the JCAwhere it identifies that a building
is a HRRB. (Recommendation 2.5)
- Second gateway - Full Plans Approval.The JCA will undertake a
thorough assessment of detailed design plans for HRRBs before
giving permission for building work to commence (Recommendation
2.6)
- Third gateway - Completion Certificate. The JCA undertakes a
thorough test of the construction of HRRBs based on clear
documentary evidence from the Principal Contractor and the Building
Owner must complete a pre-occupation Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) and
prepare a Resident Engagement Strategy (RES) all of which must be
signed off by the JCA to enable occupation to commence.
(Recommendation 2.7)
- Once occupied, responsibility for the safety of all parts of a
HRRB must be held by a clear, senior Dutyholderwhich should be the
building owner or superior landlord. (Recommendation 3.1a) and the
name and contact details of the Dutyholder must be notified to the
JCA (Recommendation 3.1b)
- The Dutyholder must nominate a named Building Safety Manager
with relevant skills, knowledge and expertise to be responsible for
day to day management of the building and a point of contact for
the residents. The name and contact details of the Building Safety
Manager must be notified to the JCA and residents and be displayed
in the building (Recommendation 3.1c).
- The Dutyholder for a HRRB must proactively demonstrate to the
JCA that they are discharging their responsibilities through a
Safety Case Review conducted at regular intervals agreed with the
JCA identifying hazards and risks and how they are controlled
through a description of the safety management system in place.
(Recommendation 3.3).
- The Dutyholder for a HRRB must demonstrate that a Fire Risk
Assessment (FRA) has been undertaken by someone with relevant
skills, knowledge and experience and reviewed regularly depending
on risk (Recommendation 3.4)
- Residents should have clearer obligations in cooperating with
the Dutyholder or Building Safety Manager to the extent necessary
to keep the building safe for all those living there and the
Dutyholder should educate, influence and ensure residents meet
their obligations and the JCA should be able to intervene where
there are immediate risks to persons (Recommendation 3.5).
- For HRRBs there should be robust sanctions to drive compliance
by Duty holders including ultimately criminal sanctions.
- The Dutyholder should have a statutory duty to proactively
provide residents with information that supports residents
understanding of the layers of protection in place to protect the
building and residents should have a right of access to FRAs ,
Safety Case Reviews and information on maintenance and asset
management relating to the safety of their homes. (Recommendations
4.1, 4.2). In addition the Dutyholder should notify residents of
any relevant notices issued by the JCA, Environmental Heath, the
Fire & Rescue Service and any other regulators in relation to
safety. (para 4.15)
- The Dutyholder should have a Resident Engagement Strategy in
place to outline how information will be shared with residents, how
they will inform them of their rights and responsibilities and how
they will involve residents in decision making about changes to the
building that could impact on safety. (Recommendation 4.3). The JCA
should have a mechanism for checking and enforcing against
Dutyholders who fall short of the requirement to engage with
residents (Para 4.22).
- Crucially the Government should provide funding for
organisations working at both local and national level to provide
advice, guidance and support to residents, landlords and building
owners on effective resident involvement to develop a national
culture of engagement for residents of all tenures and this
recommendation should not be limited to the residents of HRRBs.
(Recommendation 4.4).
- Although not a specific recommendation, the Report refers to
positive examples of tenant scrutiny panels and comments that a
residents' representative organisation operating on a national
scalewould be an important advocate for residents in contributing
to discussions with government, regulators and providers. (paras
4.2-4.7)
- After internal processes have been exhausted there should be a
clear and quick escalation and redress route availablefor residents
of all tenures to an independent body. (Recommendation 4.5)
- The professional and accreditation bodies within construction
and fire safety sectors should present a proposal to government
within one year including the role and remit of an overarching body
to provide oversight of competence requirements. (Recommendation
5.2)
- Relevant parties should develop and define a system for the
competence requirements for the role of Building Safety Manager and
role in ensuring residents in HRRBs have access to fire safety
awareness training. (Recommendation 5.4)
- Guidance on how to meet the Building Regulations should be
owned by the industry and there should be a periodic review, at
least every 5 years, of the effectiveness of the overall system.
(Recommendations 6.1, 6.2)
- Dame Judith's report does not specifically recommend the
banning of non-combustible material but recommends that a clearer,
more transparent and more effective specification and testing
regime of construction products must be developed with clear
statements on what systems products can and cannot be used for,
with significantly reduced scope for substitution of any products
used in a system without further full testing. (Recommendation 7.1)
- Manufacturers must retest products that are critical to the
safety of HRRBs at least every three years (Recommendation
7.2)
- The construction products industry should work together to
develop and agree a consistent labelling and traceability system
for products (Recommendation 7.5)
- For HRRBs, principal contractors and clients should devise
contracts that specifically state that safety requirements must not
be compromised for cost reductions (Recommendation 9.1)
Significantly the report also highlights a number of the
recommendations which Dame Judith recommends the government should
consider applying the requirement to other multi-occupancy
residential buildings.
The Report does not attempt to set out the costs or wider
resource implications associated with the proposed new regulatory
framework although the recommendations will require additional
actions from those building and owning & managing HRRBs but
says that research from the USA suggests where a digital record is
utilised net savings in the region of 5% in the cost of
construction of newly built projects are possible.
Read full report: Building a Safer Future: Independent Review of
Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report
The Government have responded to Dame Judith's Report and in a
statement to Parliament on 17 May 2018 the Housing Secretary, James
Brokenshire, supported the principles behind the report's
recommendations saying:
"Dame Judith is clear that the
current system - developed over many years and successive
governments - is not fit for purpose.
She is calling for major reform and a
change of culture, with the onus more clearly on everyone involved
to manage the risks they create at every stage and government doing
more to set and enforce high standards.
This government agrees with that
assessment and supports the principles behind the report's
recommendations for a new system.
We agree with the call for greater
clarity and accountability over who is responsible for building
safety during the construction, refurbishment and on-going
management of high-rise homes.
The Hackitt review has shown that in
too many cases people who should be accountable for fire safety
have failed in their duties.
I am committing today to bring
forward legislation that delivers meaningful and lasting change and
gives residents a much stronger voice in an improved system of fire
safety."
He went on to say that in addition to a previously announced consultation on use of desktop studies, the
Government would also now consult on banning the use of combustible
materials in cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings
and will continue work with industry to clarify Building
Regulations fire safety guidance, and will publish this for
consultation in July.
Read the Housing Secretary's full statement to
Parliament in response to Dame Judith's report.