The Building Safety Bill has now become the Building Safety Act from today. This Building Safety Act, compliments the Fire Safety Act, paving the way for update fire safety regulations.

This is the culmination of months of debate in parliament. Balconies on high-rise buildings were a topical subject of the debate in the house of Lords during the passing of the bill. Aluminium decking on high-rise balconies near the coast was raised by the representatives of a project in Dorset, where Blazeboard is installed. Blazeboard has weathered the salty air but the building has problems with EWS1. Developers have proposed aluminium decking to be installed to the balconies of this building. Baroness Fox-Buckley stated that, “We are all familiar with the #claddingscandal, but I want to avoid a scandal, or at least an injustice, emerging that is not to do with cladding”. The Baroness expressed concerns about corrosion of metals in salty environments, and suggested that replacement of the existing decking with the proposed aluminium decking may cause a future corrosion problem.

How does the Building Safety Act (and Fire Safety Act) affect leaseholders with combustible balconies? The Acts allow leaseholders to retrospectively sue their developer for unsafe materials such as cladding and decking, going back up to 30 years.

Registration of high-rise buildings will start in April 2023, requiring a Responsible Person to provide a Building Safety Case for their building.

New fire safety regulations will now stem from the Building Safety Act. The release of updated regulations is expected to be over the next 18 months.