Landmark Building Safety (Wales) Bill laid before Senedd

The Building Safety (Wales) Bill forms part of a wider programme of reforms aimed at improving safety and is part of the Welsh Government’s broader response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which seeks to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Included within is a programme of work aimed at addressing fire safety issues in multi-occupied residential buildings of 11 metres tall and above. Significant reforms to the Building Control system are promised, so too new regulations for high-risk buildings, clearer responsibilities for duty holders and mandatory registration and regulation of Building Control professionals.

The Building Safety (Wales) Bill will require building safety risks to be assessed and managed while buildings are in occupation for the benefit of residents and others, with a robust enforcement regime to back that up. Fire safety duties will also apply to certain Houses in Multiple Occupation.

The legislation will create clear lines of accountability for duty holders. These duty holders will have legal responsibility for assessing and managing building safety, ending confusion over who’s responsible for the safety of residents and others.

Additionally, the Bill will see residents in all regulated buildings provided with greater reassurances about the safety of their homes and clear routes for redress to raise building safety complaints. The document also places responsibilities on residents to play their part in keeping their building safe.

Fundamental transformation

Cabinet Secretary Jayne Bryant said: “This landmark Bill will fundamentally transform safety in multi-occupied residential buildings across Wales. Its key principles are safety, accountability and residents’ voices and it goes wider and further than existing legislation in other parts of the UK.”

Bryant continued: “It creates clear legal responsibilities for owners and others, gives residents new rights and pathways to raise complaints, enables standards for professional assessments and provides robust enforcement powers when safety requirements are not met. The safety and well-being of people in their homes must always be our priority.”

Further, Bryant noted: “This Bill is part of a wider programme to ensure that buildings in Wales are safer and that people are protected in their homes.

The legacy of Grenfell Tower must be meaningful change. We owe it to those who lost their lives, their families and the survivors to ensure that such a tragedy can never happen again.”