New Building Regulations from October 2023

Background and what has changed

The Government has published amendments to the Building Regulations, which applied to all Building Control applications from 1st October 2023. The Government has formed a new regulatory body within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) called the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). The BSR will oversee many aspects of building safety, including Building Regulations and Building Control. If you, or someone on your behalf, have submitted a building control application, you now have new legal responsibilities (from 1st October 2023) as a Client, Designer or Contractor.

Registered Building Inspectors

Building control is to become a regulated profession, meaning that the job title ‘Building Inspector’ will be protected in law. There is a requirement for certain qualifications or experience to be held by individuals working within the profession and for them to register with the regulator (BSR) as Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs). This became a requirement from April 2024 and applies to individuals within Local Authorities.

Duty Holders

The regulations set out duty holder roles for persons and organisations who undertake any building work to which the building regulations apply, these are:

• A Client is a person for whom the project is carried out
• A Domestic Client is the same as the Client, but not for the reason of furthering a business activity
• A Designer is any person (including a client, builder or anyone else) who carries out, arranges for or instructs design
• A Contractor is any person (including a Client (but not a domestic client) who carries out, manages or controls work

Note: All duty holders must share information with anyone who might be affected within the Client, Designer and Contractor chain.

The roles are modelled on those within CDM regulations and are already embedded in the construction industry. However, these duty holder roles now extend beyond Health and Safety and into Building Regulation compliance as well as setting out roles and responsibilities that also cover residential domestic building projects.

What are the new Duty holder roles and responsibilities?

New duties are proposed for those who procure, plan, design, manage and undertake building work. The new duties apply to all building work to which the Building Regulations 2010 apply.

Under the new duties, the Client is the person responsible for commissioning the building work and is considered to have overall control over the project. The Client, the person commissioning the work, has a duty under the new Regulations to take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that any and all Duty holder(s) acting on their behalf are competent.

However, for domestic projects, it is considered unlikely that the Client will have sufficient competence to carry out this duty and therefore most of the client duties will be placed on those undertaking the design work and the building work as appointed by the Client. The person(s) appointed by the Client must then give notice to the relevant authority, with a statement explaining it is on behalf of a domestic Client and providing the Client details.

Although the Client can delegate tasks, they cannot delegate responsibilities and must ensure that those they appoint have the right competencies to take on these roles.

The Client as the Duty holder or the appointed Duty holder(s) need to ensure that there are arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor design work and building work to ensure compliance with Building Regulations.

If at any point during the application or construction process or at any time after a building control approval application is made or a building notice is given, the Client for a project changes, the outgoing Client must give notice to the relevant authority of the change and details of the new Client.

Where the Client is a domestic client, the outgoing Duty holder(s) must provide information to the domestic client within five calendar days of their appointment ending.

Identifying where you fit

Client

Your duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following at Building Regulation application stage;

• Ensure suitable arrangements exist to plan, manage and monitor the building work to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations throughout the life of the project.
• Take all reasonable steps to ensure any designers or contractors appointed are competent to carry out the work for which they are appointed. In practice, this means appointing the right people (with the right competencies) for the work.
• Name, address, telephone number and email of these parties.
• Details of any change in the duty holders and the dates of their appointment.
• A signed statement of authority that the information is, to the best of your knowledge, correct.
• Confirm your intended start date.
• The date and description of ‘commencement’ or meaningful start will be required at application stage. For new buildings and extensions this would usually be the date at which the foundations and ground floor structure is complete
• The client and design team must submit a design that they are confident complies with the building regulations. Limited or speculative design information could give rise to Building Control questioning the competence of designers.

During the Construction Stage

• Any changes to the duty holder roles must be notified to Building Control to inform us of the changes and any new contact details.
• Sussex Building Control will inspect the works at certain stages and you must notify us in advance of these stages in order to allow us to inspect the works.
• Regular monitoring of works to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations, maintaining adherence to designs, and checking the quality and performance of materials is the responsibility of duty holders. Independent checks should be considered during the course of the works, this is not the function of Building Control who will inspect a sample of work at key stages.

When the work is complete

Each duty holder involved in the construction phase must provide compliance declarations to Building Control to confirm that they have fulfilled their duties and confirm to the best of their knowledge that the works comply with the Building Regulations.

The declaration must contain the following information;

• The Client’s name, address, telephone number and email address.
• The Designer and Contractor names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
• A statement that the building work is complete.
• A signed statement that, to the best of your knowledge, the building work complies with the building regulations.
• A signed statement from the Designer and Contractor that they have fulfilled their duties under the building regulations.

Sussex Building Control cannot issue the completion certificate without receiving these declarations.

A final inspection should be arranged when duty holders are satisfied that the works are complete and comply with the building regulations. All necessary commissioning certificates and test results should be submitted as soon as practicable to Building Control.

Summing up

Domestic Client

You must:

• Ensure suitable arrangements exist to plan, manage and monitor the building work to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations.
• Ensure that these arrangements are maintained throughout the life of the project.
• Take all reasonable steps to ensure any designers or contractors appointed are competent to carry out the work for which they are appointed.

Designer

Means anyone (including the Client, contractor or anyone else) who, during their business, carries out design work or arranges for or instructs anyone under their control to do so.

You must:

• Plan, manage and monitor design work so that if the building work were carried out, it would comply with the Building Regulations.
• Cooperate with the Client, designers, and contractors to the extent that if the building work were carried out, it would comply with the Building Regulations.
• Not start any design work unless you are satisfied that the Client is aware of the duties owed by the Client.
• Carry out design to ensure that if building work were carried out, the design it would comply with the Building Regulations.
• Provide sufficient information about the building’s design, construction and maintenance to allow the Client, other designers and contractors to comply with the Building Regulations.
• Consider any other design work and report any compliance concerns relating to the design compliance to the Principal Designers and Client.
• Must advise the Principal Designer or the Client whether any work they are designing is Higher-Risk building work.

Contractor

Is any person (including the Client, but not a domestic client) who, in the course of a business, carries out, manages or controls any building work.

You must:

• Plan, manage and monitor the building work so as to comply with the Building Regulations.
• Cooperate with the Client, designers and contractors to the extent necessary to ensure that it would comply with the Building Regulations.
• Not start any building work unless they are satisfied that the Client is aware of the duties owed by their duties.
• Ensure the building work they are carrying out complies with the Building Regulations.
• Provide each worker under their control with appropriate supervision, information and instruction to ensure the building work complies with the Building Regulations.
• Provide sufficient information about the work to allow the Client, other designers and contractors to comply with the Building Regulations.
• Consider other building works when you are only carrying out part of the building work and report any concerns relating to compliance to the Principal Contractor.
• Provide advice to the Principal Contractor or the Client on whether any work is Higher-Risk building work.

The above information is intended to help inform any potential applicant of the changes to the Building Regulations that come in to force on the 1st October 2023. It is not an exhaustive summary or comprehensive explanation of the changes to the Building Regulations, Building Regulations (Amendments) (England) 2023, the CDM Regulations 2015 or the Building Safety Act 2022 and should not be treated as such.

You must follow these legal procedures so that your building control application can be considered.

Changes in 2022

On 15 June 2022 significant changes to building regulations came into effect for for new homes, extensions, existing buildings and non-domestic buildings. New homes and buildings in England will have to produce significantly less carbon dioxide (CO2) under new rules.

Under the new regulations, CO2 emissions from new build homes must be around 30% lower than current standards and emissions from other new buildings, including offices and shops, must be reduced by 27%.

What action do I need to take?

The new building regulations came into force for applications made on and after 15 June 2022.  The new requirements do not apply to applications made to us prior to June 15 2022, providing substantial building work has begun before 15 June 2023. This gives 1 year for commencement of work.  It’s your responsibility to notify your Building Control Surveyor, to allow for a satisfactory commencement to be recorded.

The commencement of work would usually be marked by work such as:

• Excavation for strip or trench foundations or for pad footings
• Digging out and preparation of ground for raft foundations
• Vibrofloatation (stone columns) piling, boring for piles or pile driving
• Drainage work specific to the building(s) concerned

We consider that the following sorts of work would not be likely to constitute the commencement of work:

• Removal of vegetation
• Demolition of any previous buildings on the site
• Removal of top soil
• Removal of treatment of contaminated soil
• Excavation of trial holes
• Dynamic compaction
• General site servicing works (e.g. roadways)