黑洞社区

The cost to industry of meeting new building safety regulations for high-rise residential blocks could reach nearly 拢3bn over 15 years, a government impact assessment has found.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLHUC) lastweek published its response to consultations on several regulations under the 黑洞社区 Safety Act, including provisions for the 鈥榞olden thread鈥�, information needed to attain a building-assessment certificate and duties to engage residents.

The government, alongside secondary legislation to bring the regulations into law, published an impact assessment showing costs of the new regime, which applies to blocks at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys and contain at least two residential units

The impact assessment sets out three cost estimates for the industry.

Its 鈥榣ow鈥� estimate is a cost to industry of 拢1.24bn over 15 years, its central, or 鈥榖est鈥� estimate is 拢1.82bn and its 鈥榟igh鈥� estimate is 拢2.9bn.

The assessment shows new rules requiring building owners or managers to produce safety cases for buildings will be the costliest area, with a central estimate of 拢830.9m.

Requirements to engage residents, including providing them with accurate and up to date information, are the second area of with the highest expected cost. This is followed by the requirements on dutyholders-defined as clients, principal contractors and principle designers - to maintain a 鈥済olden thread鈥� of information about a building throughout its lifecycle.

The cost to the building safety regulator, currently the Health and Safety Executive, is expected to be 拢356m. This is in addition to the industry estimates.

The government has also announced that the 鈥榞olden thread鈥� information does not have to be stored on one system in order to be considered a 鈥渟ingle source of truth鈥� as required.

Source:

DLUHC said its decision followed 鈥渇eedback from stakeholders about their use of multiple systems and how this can deliver effective outcomes鈥�

The government has also said it will not mandate a system for sharing and collecting golden thread data as this would not be 鈥減roportionate鈥�, although it acknowledged 鈥渃oncerns about not mandating standards for structuring information, data coding or an index structure鈥�.

It said: 鈥淭here are many different existing standards and data dictionaries already in use across industry.

>>See also: We are entering a new era for building safety: but are we ready for the new regulator?

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鈥淢andating a specific standard or data dictionary could impose unnecessary costs on accountable persons to update their information and records to meet with the new requirements, and these costs could be passed on to leaseholders. If accountable persons are already ensuring their information is consistent and up to date, the government does not consider it a proportionate approach to require them to implement a new system.鈥�