‘Don’t panic’ about new building safety regime, says HSE

News03 Sep 2020Sarah Williams

A senior director involved in the process to form the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has told housing leaders not to “panic” about impending changes to regulation.

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‘Don’t panic’ about new building safety regime, HSE tells housing leaders #UKhousing #SocialHousingFinance

Director of HSE’s building safety and construction division, Peter Baker, tells housing leaders not to “panic” about new regime: “I would encourage landlords and businesses to work together, share ideas and information” #UKhousing #SocialHousingFinance

In an interview with Social Housing published today, Peter Baker, director of the HSE’s building safety and construction division, acknowledged that new requirements under the nascent regime could seem “daunting”, particularly in the context of social landlords’ other key responsibilities.

The government published its draft Building Safety Bill in July. The bill outlined the core objectives of the BSR and set out further detail on the system of ‘dutyholders’ for each stage of a building’s life cycle.

It also establishes the role of the ‘accountable person’, who will hold legal responsibility for the safety of higher-risk buildings in occupation.

Alongside obligations to assess and safeguard against fire safety risks, the ‘accountable person’ will take responsibility for tasks such as applying for building assurance certification before a building can be occupied, as well as appointing a ‘building safety manager’ to carry out day-to-day building management.

Mr Baker, who is leading the ‘operationalisation’ of the legislation at the HSE – that is, turning the new laws into a practical regulatory regime – told Social Housing: “This could all look really quite daunting – and it’s designed to, because we’ve got to get a real step change in attitude, behaviour, culture and performance.”

But he added: “My message [to landlords] would be, don’t panic. There is a lot of good work already going on to better manage building risks and to get ready for the new regime, so I would encourage landlords and businesses to work together, share ideas and information, and use the links that they may have through trade bodies and associations to get information and collective support and advice."

Mr Baker also advised that strong leadership on safety requires a “constant level of intrusive inquisitiveness”.

It comes as Dame Judith Hackitt, whose independent review into building safety first recommended the creation of the new overall regulatory body, warns in the latest edition of Social Housing that the broader pace of change remains too slow.

“[Too] many organisations… continue to hold back from making the changes they know they need to make until they have to,” she writes.

Improving competence will be vital to achieving the shift the new regime will look to implement across the built environment, in terms of where risk is identified, owned and managed.

This will see the regime reflect the core workplace health and safety principles that the HSE is used to delivering across its other functions.

Mr Baker said: “The key one of those [principles] is that it is the responsibility of those that create the risk to manage and control it.”

Read the full interview with Peter Baker