The draft Building Safety Bill: What and who is a ‘building safety manager’? What environment will they will be working within?

The new Building Safety Bill and associated legislation, including building regulations and the Fire Safety Act, are bringing significant change to the whole life cycle of residential buildings. There are to be a number of new duty holders, including additional duties for those appointed under Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM), and new roles including the accountable person, principal accountable person and building safety manager, the latter being a regulated role rather than a formal legal duty holder. There is also a new regime being established in the guise of the building safety regulator. While the Bill is going through the parliamentary process at time of writing and may be subject to change, this paper seeks to outline the essential understanding of how the new legislative requirements are anticipated to work together to deliver safer buildings in which to live. The paper also describes, at high level, how the new duty holder roles are expected to interact and what their roles are in delivering the forthcoming regime for building safety.