Building Safety Programme

Lessons from the Grenfell tragedy highlighted the need for clear accountability in relation to those who own and manage relevant buildings. The Building Safety (Wales) Bill will introduce a new building safety regime in Wales for multi-occupied residential buildings. A multi-occupied residential building is a building of any size containing two or more residential units. The Bill will establish a robust and coherent regulatory system, creating clear lines of accountability, imposing a range of statutory duties on relevant “duty-holders” in respect of the relevant parts of a multi-occupied residential building. 

The Building Safety (Wales) Bill forms part of a wider programme of reforms aimed at improving safety in multi-occupied residential buildings. This includes:

• A remediation programme which is addressing fire safety issues in multi-occupied residential buildings of 11m and above;
• Significant reforms to the design and construction phase of buildings, including reforms to building control, new regulations for high-risk buildings, clearer responsibilities for duty holders and mandatory registration and regulation of building control professionals
• Establishment of a Joint Inspection Team
• Building Safety (Wales) Bill which will ensure that multi-occupied residential buildings are managed safely in future

Remediation programme - Welsh Building Safety Fund

Wales has become the first country in the UK to confirm a route to remediation for all high-rise residential buildings affected by structural fire safety issues. The Welsh Building Safety Fund allows Responsible Persons the opportunity to access support to carry out building safety related surveys.

Reform of the Design and Construction phase of buildings 

The Welsh Government worked closely with UK Government to develop primary legislation which extends to Wales through the UK Building Safety Act 2022, requiring mandatory registration for all individual building inspectors and private sector building control companies. 

Further work to reform building control processes for higher-risk buildings and duty-holder regimes. The public consultation on these proposals has recently closed.

Joint Inspection Team

The Joint Inspection Team (JIT) is a multi-disciplinary team working closely with Local Authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to bring additional capacity to inspections and to develop a clearer picture of the existing risk profile for high rise buildings across Wales.

On 7 July 2025, the Building Safety (Wales) Bill was introduced into the Senedd. The Bill sets out a new building safety regime covering ongoing management of multi-occupied residential buildings. 

The Bill will create three categories of multi-occupied residential buildings, determined by a building’s height and the number of storeys it contains with different levels of regulation depending on the building’s category. The tallest buildings will be subject to the strictest regulation.

• Category 1 buildings, which are at least 18 metres in height or at least 7 storeys
• Category 2 buildings, which are less than 18 metres in height but at least 11 metres in height, with fewer than 7 storeys but at least 5 storeys
• Category 3 buildings, which are less than 11 metres in height and fewer than 5 storeys 

The fire safety provisions in the Bill will also apply to houses in multiple occupation that are not let under a single joint tenancy.

Three fundamental principles underpin the Bill:

i) safety

ii) accountability

iii) resident voice

i) Safety

The Bill seeks to enhance safety in multi-occupied residential buildings in Wales. 

By giving those responsible for buildings clear and robust duties to assess and manage risk, people should be made safer, and should feel safer.

This new regime will largely replace the Fire Safety Order for residential buildings that are not also workplaces. It will focus more clearly than the Fire Safety Order does on the types of fire risk which tend to exist in multi-occupied residential buildings.

The Bill will require a professional, thorough fire risk assessment of each building. Only demonstrably competent persons will be allowed to conduct fire risk assessments. The “accountable person” (eg the owner or landlord) will be required to take all appropriate steps to reduce fire risk, informed by (but not limited to) the findings of the fire risk assessment.

In category 1 and category 2 buildings a structural risk assessment will also need to be completed. Requirements relating to that assessment will be set out using regulations.

ii) Accountability

The Bill defines who is accountable for assessing and managing risks. It sets out what those people must do.

Local authorities will be given new functions. They will register category 1 and 2 buildings. They will also be responsible for enforcing many of the new duties that will be placed on accountable persons.

The Fire and Rescue Authorities will be responsible for enforcing the duties to assess and manage fire safety risks.

iii) Resident Voice

Residents are fundamental to the aims and objectives of the Bill. The Bill will empower them with clear routes of redress and a stronger voice in matters that affect their homes. 

Residents must also play a part in ensuring that the building they live in remains safe. The Bill will establish appropriate responsibilities for residents that help them to contribute to a safer living environment.

Ordnance Survey products have been used to establish the numbers of in-scope buildings: 

Estimated number of category 1 buildings in Wales: 180*

Estimated number of category 2 buildings in Wales: 449*

Estimated number of category 3 buildings in Wales: circa 51,000**

Estimated number of houses in multiple occupation in Wales: 15,000***

*These figures are estimates taken from available data where a filtered portion has been verified

**Unverified data 

*** taken from StatsWales

Follow the progress of the Bill through the Senedd.