What is the Building Safety Act (2022)?

The Building Safety Act is a law that regulates the standard, design, construction and management of buildings in England and Wales to ensure their safety.

Gaining royal assent in 2022, the act overhauled existing regulations to “give residents and homeowners more rights, powers and protections” by “strengthening the whole regulatory system for building safety”.

In support of this aim, the law created three new bodies:

• The Building Safety Regulator (BSR): to enforce the act and oversee the safety, standards, design and management of buildings, particularly higher-risk ones. This includes the ability to prosecute for non-compliance. The BSR is an arm’s-length body of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• The National Regulator for Construction Products: to ensure that all construction products in the English market are safe to use
• The New Homes Ombudsman: to allow owners of new-build homes to escalate complaints (i.e. against developers) to the new ombudsman

History of the Building Safety Act

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, an independent review of building regulations and fire safety, led by Dame Judith Hackitt, was commissioned.

Her final report, published May 2018, made 50 recommendations to raise safety standards in the industry.

The government accepted these in full. This led to the Building Safety Bill being published, which became the Building Safety Act.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry – phases 1 and 2

The UK government also launched an inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.

The inquiry’s phase 1 report was published in October 2019 and looked at how the fire started and spread, and the emergency services’ response.

The second and final report, published in September 2024, examined the underlying causes of the disaster.

The inquiry made recommendations to improve building safety, including (but not limited to):

• that there should be a single regulator
• defining a higher-risk building (HRB)
• the need for a compliance statement

When did the Building Safety Act come into force?

Elements of the act came into force during 2022 and 2023.

This includes the key regulations for duty holders (those who procure building work and those that are involved in it), which became enforceable in England in October 2023.

Regulations relating to higher-risk buildings (see more later in this article) came into force in 2024.

Other building safety related requirements continue to be rolled out.

What changes did the act and regulations introduce?

The Building Safety Act requires duty holders to ensure that a building is safe and that it has been properly designed, built to that design and maintained by competent people.

It also seeks to put those who use the buildings at the centre of the regime by:

• Introducing legal protections so that building leaseholders are not immediately responsible for paying for historical safety defects, such as replacing cladding
• Requiring higher-risk building owners and managers, known as accountable persons, to listen to residents’ safety concerns about the building, and be responsible for repairing common parts
• Requiring freeholders and developers to contribute to the cost of fixing the defects in their buildings.

The act also introduces a change in approach, moving away from compliance, or ‘box-ticking’.

It also refers to a ‘golden thread’ of information – an improved way of storing and managing building information so that duty holders can handle its safety throughout its lifecycle.

According to the UK government: “These changes mean owners will manage their buildings better, and the home-building industry has the clear, proportionate framework it needs to deliver more, and better, high-quality homes”

What buildings does the Building Safety Act apply to?

The main principles of the act apply to all buildings of all heights but has tougher requirements for higher-risk buildings, where the potential loss of life in case of a fire or structural failure is the greatest.

Under the act, an HRB in England is a minimum of 18m tall or has at least seven storeys and contains at least two residential units or is a care home or hospital.

HRBs are subject to a three stage (gateway) regime involving consultation and approvals from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).

Learn more about the gateways

The BSR is the only building control body for HRBs.

Higher Risk Buildings (HRB) Register

In 2025, the ICE and the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) launched the registration process for the Higher Risk Building Competency Register for structural engineers.

This register aims to assure clients, the BSR and others that registered engineers involved in the design of HRBs have the legally required skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours.

A safer built environment: the ICE’s role

Following the Grenfell tragedy, the ICE commissioned its own report to identify ways the industry could reduce the risk of similar disasters.

Published in 2018, In Plain Sight: assuring the whole-life safety of infrastructure, made several recommendations. This included the ICE identifying and communicating risk-related topics for members to study as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).

The ICE has since followed up on its initial report with Building Safeguards (2025), which considered the now-enforced Building Safety Act and the findings of the final Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

As a result of the new report, from 2026, all professionally qualified ICE members must undertake CPD activity relating to safety and risk management.

Find out more about the new CPD requirement

To learn more about the act, read our in-depth explainer on the ICE Knowledge Hub.

Disclaimer: Please note the contents of this page are only meant to act as an introduction to the Building Safety Act and its history. They do not constitute legal advice. Please visit the official UK government website for more information.