Tall & Urban News

Starting on 1 April 2024, contractors can start building high-rise blocks while still having some gaps in design details under the new building safety regime, the UK regulator in charge has said.

A webinar was held explaining how the new rules for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) will work under this new system.  Neil Hope-Collins, the operational policy lead for HRB building control authority at the Building Safety Regulator, said the regulator would allow for “holes” in designs when they are signed off.

Hope-Collins said: “There will legitimately be part of the design that I think of as ‘holes’ in the design. There are bits that you legitimately can’t have the detail for yet because that’s six years down the line. The standards and the contractors may change. Technology may move on. You don’t know how that bit of the hole is going to be filled.”

Using sprinkler systems as an example, he said: “Do we expect the fine detail of the last work of the piping for the sprinkler systems at the outset? Well, that’s probably not reasonable for you to be giving us.”

However, the regulator will check whether designs at gateway two, which has to be passed through before building work can start, contain “sufficient detail around the parameters of the system”.

Hope-Collins again gave the example of the sprinkler system. He said, "Do you know where your water supply is coming from? If you’ve got a header tank, are you confident that the building can structurally hold the weight of the water? Do you know what the emergency supply is going to be like? Do you know what the flow rates should be to provide the protection that you expect? Those parameters that surround the hole in your design need to be clear enough that we, [and] you, can be clear that whatever happens within the hole in that design, the building will still be legal.”

The regulator will need to examine the details of the missing parts of any design at a later stage. This has sparked some concerns that regulations are being watered down. 

The regulator was preparing for a large number of applications for HRBs in April. As of the end of January, no new applications for HRBs had been submitted since the new system was turned on in October 2023.

From April, only buildings that are “sufficiently progressed” will be dealt with under the old rules.

Learn more about this story at Construction News.