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Welcome to our Building Safety newsletter - designed to keep you regularly informed on the progress of the Building Safety Programme and fire safety matters affecting the people of Wales.
You can also follow us on X using @WGCommunities
The Welsh Government remain committed to the Programme for Government to reform the current system of building safety in Wales so that people feel safe and secure in their homes.
The actions we are taking to improve Building Safety in Wales will help to address our present situation as well as to ensure the problems we face now cannot happen again in the future.
Earlier this year, the Building Safety Reform team held a series of three workshops to discuss the proposed Building Safety (Wales) Bill with Local Authorities and Fire and Rescue Services. In these workshops, we built on the policy development previously shared during the workshops last summer.
The sessions included:
- Duties to be placed on local authorities as Regulators, and cooperation with the Fire Recue Authorities,
- Duties to be placed on duty holders,
- Definition of Building Safety Risks,
- Registration and the Building Certificate,
- Resident engagement, complaints, and their responsibilities in the new regime and,
- Enforcement and Sanctions.
We intend to hold a series of engagement sessions with a broader range of stakeholders over the coming months. If you would like to be part of these sessions, please contact us at our mailbox: buildingsafety@gov.wales
The Joint Inspection Team for Building Safety in Wales is now operational and will soon undertake its first inspection.
The Team will bring additional capacity to inspections of multi-occupied residential buildings. They will work closely with Local Authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to undertake additional inspections of medium and high-rise buildings across Wales. A programme of inspections is currently under development.
The Joint Inspection Team will act in an advisory capacity – it will not have enforcement powers. It will, however, provide advice and make recommendations to existing enforcement authorities including real-time reporting on issues of significant concern, detailed reports to enforcement authorities, post-inspection meetings and reviews with the host Local Authority and relevant Fire and Rescue Service.
The team is multi-disciplinary, combining the skills and knowledge of building safety and fire safety professionals and consists of a Strategic Lead and four Principal Advisers covering:
- Building Control
- Environmental Health
- Fire and Rescue
- Fire Engineering
The Joint Inspection Team will also highlight the offer of Welsh Government-funded intrusive surveys, to encourage more expressions of interest to the Building Safety Fund from building owners/ managing agents.
For further information, please contact Dawood Haddadi, Head of the Joint Inspection Team, e-mail: dawood.haddadi@wlga.gov.uk
On 1 April 2024, the Association of British Insurers launched a new Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility. The Facility will help to improve the availability of insurance for certain buildings with combustible cladding and other fire safety issues. The person or company responsible for arranging their building insurance cover should discuss the Facility with their broker or insurer. More information on how this Facility will work is available here.
 The Welsh Government is committed to address fire safety issues in medium and high-rise buildings here in Wales (these are typically buildings over four storeys high). As part of the support being offered to leaseholders, or their representatives, The Leaseholder Legal Advisory Scheme launched in May 2024. This Scheme will provide legal advice specifically for fire safety related matters.
Developers that have signed up to the Welsh Government’s Contract are subject to a robust monitoring regime. If necessary, the Welsh Government will take formal action against these developers.
There may, however, be times where leaseholders, or responsible persons on behalf of leaseholders, need legal advice about their property as a direct result of fire safety issues. This is where the Leaseholder Legal Advisory Scheme can help.
The scheme is free and is designed to offer leaseholders specialist legal advice and help to resolve potential disputes. The scheme is administered by the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) and the first step to access this support is to contact them.
An advisor will review the circumstances, assess if legal support is appropriate, and if so, will advise on the next steps and how to take these forward. Where appropriate, LEASE will then act as a referral service to a dedicated legal services provider whose initial advice will be paid for by the Welsh Government.
If you feel you might be eligible for legal support and would like more information about the Scheme, please contact LEASE. You can also contact LEASE if you have any other leasehold related queries.
The Welsh Building Safety Fund is focused on addressing fire safety issues in buildings of 11 metres and over in our existing building stock.
We currently have 350 buildings in the Programme. Work has completed (subject to final sign off) on 65 buildings. Work has started on 104 buildings. Plans are in development subject to surveys and appointment of contractors for a further 107 buildings. We have been informed that 7 buildings do not require any fire safety works.
We are awaiting further updates on plans for the remaining 67 buildings. The reasons for this information not yet being available range from the buildings being low risk; issues in accessing the buildings and surveys having not yet been completed.
Since the announcement in November 2023 that there is a route to addressing fire safety issues in all residential buildings of 11 metres and over, progress has been made to:
- Identify and meet with smaller developers who are not signed up to the developer contract (18 buildings)
- Meet with larger developers to challenge and push the pace of progress, (140 buildings)
- Identify orphan buildings without an identified developer, or where the developer has ceased trading (47 buildings).
- Award the latest round of Social Sector Grants (145 buildings)
Responsible Persons of residential buildings of 11 metres or more are still able to submit an Expression of Interest to the Welsh Building Safety Fund if they have not yet done so. This is the first step to accessing support from the Welsh Government.
Further information about the Welsh Building Safety Fund can be found here: Welsh Building Safety Fund: expression of interest guidance | GOV.WALES
The first phase of the new building control regime for Wales is complete. It has brought in regulation of the building control profession, which includes private building control approvers, building inspectors and local authorities exercising building control functions.
A comprehensive guidance document that explains the first phase of building control reform in Wales has been published. It can be found on the Welsh Government website here: Building Safety Act 2022 Handbook for Wales Design and Construction Phase | GOV.WALES
In July a webinar will be held for building control professionals to explain and discuss changes in the building control regime in Wales, and how this differs from England. This is planned to be a 30-minute session via Microsoft Teams in the week commencing 8 July 2024.
If you are a building control professional and would like an invite, please contact us at enquiries.brconstruction@gov.wales letting us know your language preference and any particular requirements you have to be able to participate.
We would love to hear your feedback on the new style of our newsletter. If you have any comments, please send them to buildingsafety@gov.wales
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