In a landmark step for building and fire safety, the Building Safety Bill has now become the Building Safety Act 2022, receiving Royal Assent yesterday.

So what now?
Whilst Anthony Collins Solicitors will be releasing a more detailed ebriefing regarding the Bill becoming law, we have set out our initial headline thoughts below.

• Whilst the Bill has become law, many of the obligations within it are not yet in force. Whilst we await any definite confirmation from the Government as to the implementation of the Act, an indicative timetable was released last year; we wrote about this in our blog which can be found here.
• Those who own or manage buildings will need to ensure they understand the Act and the obligations set out within it, considering how these will affect their operations, buildings and most importantly, residents. They must ensure they are in a position to comply with the relevant obligations in the Act as soon as they come into force.
• Much of the detail of the core obligations and systems set out within the Act is due to be provided/clarified in secondary regulations. Housing providers must ensure they monitor for any developments in this regard.
• The Act is a long and formidable read – recognising this, factsheets about the key elements of the Act have been released – these can be accessed here.
• Where a provider owns or manages a higher risk building, the factsheet regarding the transitional arrangements for Building Assessment Certificates for existing buildings will be key. We wrote about this late last year and our blog can be found here.

Anthony Collins Solicitors’ blogs and ebriefings regarding the Act and the building safety regime can be found here and here respectively. Please do subscribe for regular updates.