But uncertainty remains over deadline in England
The deadline for building control professionals to get accredited under the new safety regime has been extended by the Welsh government.
Thousands of building control professionals are required to prove their competence and join the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) official register or lose the ability to practice.
Accreditation bodies handling the process had warned that a “significant number” of councils may have to cease building control services as they were likely to miss the deadline, which had originally been set at 6 April.
While the UK government has so far remained firm about the deadline in England, Wales’ devolved administration has now introduced a six-month transitionary period which will run until 1 October.
Building control professionals will still have to register by 6 April but will be given more time to get the required accreditation.
The move was welcomed by Local Authority Building Control (LABC), which represents the public sector side of the industry.
Through its subsidiary, the Building Safety Competence Foundation, LABC one of three accreditation bodies, alongside the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) and Total Training and Development.
“We already had an assessment day booked in Wales before the transitionary period was announced,” said LABC chief executive Lorna Stimpson.
“Rather than seeing a drop in numbers, with people postponing and taking advantage of the extra time, we saw the opposite.
“Bookings went up and everyone attended on the day. It shows that people are committed to getting this done as soon as possible, which reflects positively on the industry.”
Stimpson has previously called for a similar six-month extension in England.
It is unclear how many people are currently employed as building control professionals in the UK but it is believed to be between 4,000 and 5,000.
Each accreditation body has a different process, making it difficult to put an exact figure on how many will be qualified by the deadline, but it is expected to fall significantly short of the full profession.
>>See also: Race against time before April: Are we heading for a building control inspection crisis?
“What is happening is people are bringing forward retirement dates,” CABE chief Gavin Dunn told Building last month, explaining that older professionals are opting to leave work rather than fork out for accreditations.
“It is a very hot market, and so there are people who are also being attracted away from building control to do other roles within the sector,” Dunn added.
The most recent statement from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the government was working on a “managed transition” into a new oversight regime and that the regulator was “closely engaging the sector to agree a way forward”, but stopped short of endorsing an extension.
Building understands that LABC remains hopeful that the deadline might be extended, but that it, along with the other accreditation bodies and the regulator, is working on the assumption that it will not.
Councils reportedly received a letter on 1 March from the regulator’s deputy chief inspector of buildings Chris Griffin-McTiernan in which he re-iterated the 6 April deadline.
DLUHC and the Health and Safety Executive, within which the Building Safety Regulator sits, did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, a Welsh minister confirmed this week that the building safety regime in Wales will apply to all multi-occupied blocks with two or more homes.
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