Building Safety Act – The Gateways

The importance of becoming familiar with the Building Safety Act and what is required is absolutely crucial to businesses of all shapes and sizes in the construction Industry. The Building Safety Act brings important changes ‘that give residents and homeowners more rights, powers, and protections.’ Ultimately, this will make sure that buildings are safe to occupy. The Act goes beyond existing regulations to establish lasting change by outlining how residential and multi-occupancy buildings should be constructed and maintained.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will be responsible for the building control of higher-risk buildings. These are buildings that are:-

• hospitals and care homes,
• at least seven storeys or 18m in height,
• contain two residential units.

Three Gateways have been created and these play a key role in helping the regulator review the building development. The Gateways ensure building and fire safety is considered from design and construction through to the completion and occupation of a building.
The Gateways confirm to the regulator that the building is compliant with regulations and work to support the golden thread of information. This is ‘the information about a building that allows someone to understand a building and keep it safe.’

The Gateways: the stages

• Gateway one: the planning application stage
• Gateway two: before the construction stage
• Gateway three: when construction work is complete

Gateways two and three are decision points that must be passed before the project can continue onto the next stage.