Welcome to this week’s building safety bulletin. This page outlines some of the significant changes affecting developers, leaseholders, contractors, housing providers, and anyone else interested in the UK’s building safety crisis.
1. Developer remediation contract
This week, Galliard Homes signed the government’s developer remediation contract, committing the developer to remediate their unsafe buildings. This brings the total signatures to 45 with 5 who are still yet to sign (Abbey Developments, Avant, Dandara, Emerson Group and Rydon Homes). The developers were expected to sign by 13 March 2023. The government has threatened serious consequences for those who do not.
2. Inside Housing report
Peter Apps, who has tirelessly worked on fire safety issues for Inside Housing since 2017, wrote last week about the slow progress being made to address the UK’s building safety crisis. Despite changes in mortgage lending and agreements with many (though, of course, by no means all) developers to foot the bill of repair work, Apps’ article argues just how little change has been achieved on the ground.
3. Gove writes letters to Arconic and Kingspan
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has written to the manufacturers Arconic and Kingspan, calling on them to contribute to the footing of the bill for remediation work. The former, of course, supplied the ACM that was fixed to Grenfell Tower ahead of the disaster, and the latter supplied the K15 insulation.
4. New iteration of property information form
A revised version of the Buyer’s and Seller’s Property Information form (BASPI) has been released by the Home Buying and Selling Group, a cross-sector representative body. One of the main changes to this new iteration is the removal of a specific building safety question regarding the EWS1 (External Wall System) form. It has been replaced with a more general question which incorporates any non-cladding remediation.
5. Building Safety registration opens
From this Thursday (6 April), the period for owners of high-rise buildings to register with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) begins and closes in October. After that, it will be an offence for any already existing high-rise building (18m+ in height) not registered with the BSR to be occupied and any new builds will be added to the BSR’s register.
