🏗 Navigating the UK Build Safety Act 2022: Lessons from an early mover
The Donard team has been one of the early movers through the Gateway process, with three of our major development sites with a combined GDV >£250m, currently underway.
Navigating this crucial legislation is vital to delivering tall buildings in the UK.
✨Furthermore, we are confident that being through Gateway Two is value accretive to sites, as investors seek out the highest quality assets that are shovel ready. We expect that funding processes going forward will only attract the deepest pool of investors, subject to Gateway Two being completed ✨
🧑🎓What is the UK Build Safety Act (BSA) & Gateway process?
The genesis of the BSA is rooted in the Grenfell tragedy, which exposed significant issues with building safety, particularly fire safety and unsafe cladding materials.
It is designed to improve the safety of high rise buildings (>18m or > 7 storeys) and protect occupants, it introduces the Gateway process, a rigorous, multi-stage system aimed at ensuring safety throughout a building’s lifecycle.
The Gateway process is broken into 3 phases:
Gateway 1️⃣ (Planning): Safety considerations embedded into the planning stage.
Gateway 2️⃣ (Design & Construction): Approval of detailed safety plans before construction begins.
Gateway 3️⃣ (Completion): Ensuring all safety standards are met before occupation.
What intertwines all aspects of this new process is the Golden thread, a comprehensive digital record of all safety related decisions and modifications through a building's life.
🚧 What are the challenges for Developers?
👉Increased Compliance Costs: It costs a lot of money to take a site through the Gateway process.
👉Extended Timelines: Delays in approvals can push back project timelines.
👉An Evolving Landscape: As it is a new process, all stakeholders are on the same learning curve, and the process is therefore still evolving.
🛠 Lessons Learned & How to Get Ahead:
👉The Golden Thread: Developing a simplified and robust digital record of information is important intellectual property and will add value to projects. Keep it simple, clear and collaborate with the full professional team from the outset.
👉Start Early: Gateway can add more than 6 months to programme. Starting the process as early as possible, and overlapping work-streams, is best practice.
👉Stay Informed: The Act and its requirements are continuously evolving. Maintaining up-to-date knowledge is key to avoiding costly delays.
🚀 Conclusion:
From our own first hand experience getting the Golden Thread right is key to staying ahead across Gateways.
Simply put, design it properly with the right people / build it properly with the right people / prove it to the regulator / then hand it over the operator. The clarity and quality of the Golden thread substantiates competency throughout.
📩 Reach out to us at info@donardre.com for any further questions or support.