Building Regulations

Building regulations are minimum standards for design, construction and alterations to virtually every building. The building regulations cover the construction and extension of buildings, and these regulations are supported by Approved Documents.

The building regulations are a set of standards that are designed to ensure that new buildings, renovation work, alterations, extensions, and conversions are carried out in a manner that results in safe, energy efficient and healthy buildings. There are in-depth sets of regulations each relating to specific areas of construction including structural stability, water, electrical, and gas safety, drains, ventilation and fire safety.

Building Safety Act

Changes to the Building Safety Act in 2022 were introduced to drive up the competence in the construction industry and improve quality standards in the built environment to help move the country towards net zero carbon emissions. The changes involve additional liability to manage, monitor, co-operate, co-ordinate and communicate throughout the project. The new regime includes new terminology, roles and timelines that are important to understand for any building work.

Although titles are the same as introduced under CDM Regulations 2015, roles and responsibilities arise under different legislation and are not the same under the building regulations. Duty holder roles will be the client (including domestic client), the Principal Designer (PD) and the Principal Contractor (PC) as well as duties on designers (including the sole or lead designer) and contractors (including sole contractor). Duty holders are required to ensure they have competence (the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour) to carry out the design and building work they are engaged to do. They are also required to undertake work within the limits of their competence.

The client, meanwhile, must take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the duty holders are competent, and the duty holders must reuse to accept an appointment for works they are not competent to deliver. Duty holders are required to co-operate with duty holders and are required to co-ordinate their work and communicate and provide information to other duty holders. Under the requirements, duty holders will also need to ensure that there are arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor the design work and building work to ensure compliance with building regulations.