Two fire chiefs have been appointed to a shadow board to oversee the transition of the Building Safety Regulator(BSR) from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to becoming a separate agency
Former London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe and fire enforcement specialist Charlie Pugsley have been named as chair and chief executive respectively for a shadow board operating under the the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government(MHCLG).
The fire chiefs will oversee the BSR’s transition away from the HSE, as part of a variety of changes that the government hopes will reduce a backlog of building safety approvals.
Other moves include hiring over 100 new staff to bolster the regulator’s capacity, such as in-house engineers and building inspectors. They will be part of a new Fast Track system, designed to address delayes on new build case reviews and remediation decisions.
The news follows months of questions about the BSR’s efficiency and more recently, open condemnation of the regulator’s place within HSE from the Association of Construction and Quality Professionals (ACQP), who argued that the agency risks repeating the “very regulatory failures it was designed to prevent”.
The move is being presented as the natural evolution of the BSR
Alex Norris, minister for building safety, said: “The establishment of the Building Safety Regulator has been fundamental to centralising safety in the construction process and it’s time to take the next steps to build on that precedent and create a system that works for the sector whilst keeping residents and their safety at the heart of the process. That’s why we’re announcing a package of reforms to the BSR today to enhance operations, reduce delays, and unlock the homes this country desperately needs.”
Non-executive chair of the BSR Andy Roe, who was incident commander during the Grenfell fire in 2017, said: “The creation of the new Building Safety Regulator was a watershed moment for housing and construction in this country.
“However, it is also clear that the BSR processes’ need to continue to evolve and improve, to ensure that it plays its part in enabling the homes this country desperately needs to be built.
“I look forward to working with colleagues both in industry and the BSR to tackle the current issues and delays head on and help get those homes built safely.”
Sectioning the BSR out of HSE was always an option, says HSE chair
HSE chair Sarah Newton said: “Setting up an entirely new regulator has been complex and huge progress has been made in a short space of time. Protecting residents and making sure there is never another tragedy like Grenfell has been our priority throughout this process. We wish the new BSR team well in this most important mission.
“We are very proud of the work we have done to establish the BSR. It was always an option that once the new regulator was established that it would move out of HSE to enable the government to implement the Grenfell Public Inquiry recommendations and we will work hard to enable the smooth transition to the next stage.”
The timeline of the shadow board and BSR’s transition have not yet been disclosed.
The Grenfell Inquiry endorsed a single construction regulator
The government partially accepted the findings of the final Grenfell Inquiry last year and this arms-length approach is considered the first step in making the regulator a stand-alone body.
However, the BSR will not have jurisdiction over the product testing and certification industries, which will remain in the private sector. The inquiry recommended that the sector be nationalised and brought under state control.
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