Department also launches consultation on enhancing competence among fire risk assessors
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued a batch of building safety announcements, with new funding for training and consultations on speeding up minor works in high-risk buildings and improving standards among fire risk assessors.
The series of releases put out by the department on Thursday included an investment of £70m in new funding to address the shortage of trained building inspectors and fire engineers.
A pot of £55m will be devoted to building control, paying for the training of up to 700 new registered building inspectors and the upskilling of existing ones. The department says the boost to the workforce will include Class 3H inspectors who are authorised to inspect high-risk buildings.
Meanwhile, £15m will be spent with a view to increasing the number of fire engineers and the availability of fire engineering education.
The three-year funding programme comes in response to recommendations from the House of Lords regulatory committee, which highlighted shortages in safety-critical roles.
It also announced a consultation proposing reforms to speed up small-scale works in higher-risk buildings, with a view to making the building control regime “more proportionate and focused on the highest-risk work, while not compromising on safety”.
Currently, a large number of small jobs on such buildings are treated as major safety-critical work, which the government says is slowing down repairs and improvements while putting pressure on the Building Safety Regulator.
The consultation proposes redefining category A (major safety-critical work) to exclude work undertaken entirely within flats, unless it affects wider building safety systems.
It would also exclude small, non-complex work in communal areas from the category, while seeking views on other improvements to guidance and the future role of the competent person schemes.
This consultation will close on 28 May.
A separate consultation seeks views on enhancing competence among fire risk assessors, as the government looks to implement recommendation 26 of the Grenfell inquiry, which urged mandatory certification for the profession.
The consultation is looking at strengthening standards, ensuring those who conduct assessments have the appropriate competencies and capabilities to do so.
The consultation seeks views on defining the role of risk assessors, considering the responsible person’s ability to conduct their own assessments and developing a competency framework with robust verification methods.
It will also look at establishing clear pathways for the profession and providing the correct regulatory powers to ensure effective implementation.
This consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on 18 June.
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