Just over four years after Grenfell, legislation to fundamentally change how the industry delivers high rise residential buildings starts on its journey through Parliament. Although this seems like an age, a huge amount of work has been needed to get to this point. Remarkably, the provisions in the building safety bill remain very close to the recommendations in the Hackitt Report published over three years ago.

This means the building safety bill contains very few surprises. It confirms the new duty holder regime for client, designer, contractor, and the accountable person who is responsible for building safety on completion. The three gateways at planning, pre-construction and completion are in the bill as are the requirement for a golden thread of information and the new building safety regulator…