‘Perhaps the biggest update to come out of the Building Safety Act secondary legislation is the approach to change control’

Perhaps the biggest update to come from the Building Safety Act secondary legislation that was released in August 2023, is the matter of change control. From the Building Safety Act, we knew that some changes were going to require approval from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) for works to higher-risk buildings (HRBs), but the secondary legislation provides a lot more detail which suggests that it is going to be far more reaching than previously anticipated.

‘Make no mistake, the secondary legislation regarding change control has the potential to seriously disrupt programmes’.

To begin, the Change Control Plan is now one of the named ‘accompanying documents’ which must be submitted with a building control approval application for an HRB, putting much more scrutiny on the change control process during construction before works even start.

The Change Control Plan must detail:

• The change control process which will be used during construction
• How change controls and the impacts will be accurately recorded
• How the impacts of changes are going to be carefully considered (particularly on compliance with regulations) and discussed with the relevant third parties as required
• Make sure that the regulator has the necessary oversight of changes which they need to review and approve
• An up to date, clear and accurate change control log needs to be kept for all changes on the project

This plan is required before a spade is even put in the ground. Once an approval has then been granted there are two types of changes on an HRB project:

• Major Change - A fundamental change to the proposed works which was approved in the building control application. A change control must be made to the BSR for approval which the BSR has 6 weeks to review and approve/reject the change
• Notifiable Change - Potentially has an impact on compliance. The client must notify the BSR of the change and it can then be commenced once the notification has been made

The scope of the changes that the BSR needs to approve is vast with a strong likelihood that most of the changes that arise on an HRB probably being categorised as a ‘major change’. All of the below are scoped as ‘major changes’ within the secondary legislation:

• A material change of use to any part of an HRB building
• Any change to include or remove a car park
• Increases or decreases to the external width or height of the building
• A change to the number of storeys proposed (including mezzanine or gallery floors)
• A change to the structural design or loadings within the building
• A change to the width or number of staircases within the building
• Changes to the external wall of the building including wall ties, restraint fixings or support systems
• A change to the active or passive fire safety measures within the proposed building
• A change to the layout or measurements of the common parts of the building
• Any alternative product use within a building which has a lower fire classification then previously proposed
• A change to the number of residential dwellings
• Any occupation before completion which was not previously detailed in the building control application
• A change to any of the assumptions made within the design of the proposed HRB detailed within the building regulations compliance statement within the original application

The secondary legislation details that the timescale for approval by the BSR for a ‘major change’ is now 6 weeks which is a reduction on the timescale that was previously suggested in the Building Safety Act, however works cannot start until the until the change has been approved.

The scope of a ‘notifiable change’ is much smaller with all of the below being categorised as requiring notification to the BSR:

• A change to the construction control plan
• A change to the Change Control Plan
• A change to the layout of a residential dwelling or residential room in an HRB
• A change to the number of openings in any wall, ceiling or other building element for any pipe, duct or cable
• Any alternative product use within a building which has the same or a higher fire classification then previously proposed
• A change to any wall tie or restraint fixing to the internal walls (external wall changes are a major change)
• Any change to fire and emergency file information
• A change to the partial completion strategy (if in place at application approval, otherwise a new partial completion strategy is a major change)
• A change to a staged work application or subsequent stages

The secondary legislation doesn’t stop there either, it goes on to give a prescriptive list of what must be included in each change control submitted to the BSR for approval:

• An explanation of why the change is being proposed
• A schedule of all of the professionals who were consulted on the change
• Where the change is to the number of residential dwellings, a plan must be included to show how many residential units will be in the HRB
• An explanation of how the change complies with the building control regulations
• Where the client is not the applicant, a signed statement must be included which is signed by the client to say that they agree to the application being made and the information it contains

It is worth noting that the BSR can request to see the change control log which must be accurate and complete at anytime on a HRB project.

Make no mistake, the secondary legislation regarding change control has the potential to seriously disrupt programmes.

Having recently completed a HRB project with over 10,000 changes processed on it, there is no way we would have got near the completion date we achieved had we had to go through BSR approval process.

Without careful planning and a robust process, change has the potential to become resource intensive for HRB projects. The actual management of the change process will be more intense, design teams will feel the resource strain having to potentially provide more information than would typically be provided to complete a change on a project. The luxury of completing ‘hand to mouth’ changes will no longer be available.

‘Without careful planning and a robust process, change has the potential to become resource intensive for HRB projects’

Clients, designers, project managers and contractors all need to get to grips with the incoming regulations regarding change control. Clear processes and a management strategy must be put in place on HRB

projects from the early design stages to avoid change becoming a mammoth task on HRB projects and ultimately impacting on costs and programmes.

Get in touch with us here if you need any support or guidance to tackle this latest challenge on the industry’s journey to safer buildings.