LABC Welcomes Announcement of £42.5m Government Grant

20/6/23

Local Authority Building Control (LABC) has welcomed the news of a £42.5 million grant to support the delivery of the Building Safety Act 2022 between now and 2025.

The announcement of the grant, by The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), will see LABC receive £16.5 million of the total amount awarded. The remainder of the funding will go to support Fire and Rescue Services and the National Fire Chiefs Council.

LABC Chief Executive, Lorna Stimpson, said: "Building control surveyors are a scarce commodity and so it is important that we start to invest in this previously underfunded but vital public service role,"

The £16.5 million will be used to recruit and train approximately 110 new building control inspectors. The DLUHC programme will see trainees develop the skills and resources required over three years, before being redirected to areas with a higher distribution of high-rise buildings.

The new inspectors will become local regulators of the BSR, an independent body within the Health and Safety Executive. BSR was established by the Building Safety Act in response to the Grenfell Tower fire.

The BSR will act to ensure the safety of all buildings and in particular the construction and safe maintenance of buildings identified as high risk. The government grant will also see the recruitment of 111 fire protection officers to support BSR.

Those responsible for safety in high-rise residential blocks in England will have six months from April to register with the BSR.

IMAGE: The BSR will implement the new regime for higher-risk buildings