Building Safety Regulator Residents’ Panel seeks independent chair

The independent chair for the BSR Residents’ Panel is an important leadership role within the new building safety regime. The chair will provide independent oversight and direction to the Residents’ Panel. This will help ensure residents’ perspectives are heard, understood and meaningfully reflected in regulatory thinking, policy development and decision-making.

The BSR Residents’ Panel brings together people with direct experience of living in higher-risk buildings. It provides a structured and consistent forum for residents to share their views on building safety, raise concerns and contribute insight into how the system works for those whom it’s designed to protect.

The Residents’ Panel doesn’t replace formal regulatory processes. Instead, it ensures that residents’ voices remain embedded in the wider building safety conversation, thereby helping to inform how regulation is applied and improved over time.

An effective and trusted chair is central to making this work well. The chair will be a current resident of a high-rise residential building and will bring direct, lived experience of the higher-risk building regime. This requirement is intended to ensure that the Residents’ Panel’s leadership actively reflects the perspectives of those directly affected by building safety policy and regulatory decisions.

Core responsibilities

The chair will play a pivotal role in ensuring the Residents’ Panel operates confidently, independently and with real impact. Responsibilities include:

*leading quarterly Residents’ Panel meetings

*creating a safe, respectful and inclusive space for discussion

*supporting residents to articulate their experiences and concerns

*helping to translate lived experience into practical insight that can inform the BSR’s work

*working constructively with the BSR, while also maintaining independence and credibility

The BSR is seeking someone with strong facilitation and leadership skills who understands the importance of trust, fairness and clear communication. Experience in housing, resident advocacy, regulation or public service may be helpful. What matters most, though, is the ability to listen carefully, challenge constructively and represent residents’ interests with confidence.

This recruitment reflects the BSR’s wider commitment to placing residents at the centre of building safety, not simply as consultees, but rather as active participants in shaping a safer and more accountable system.

*Further information is available on the Health and Safety Executive’s website