5. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Building Safety

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 2 April 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:13, 2 April 2019

Well, starting with the last one there, I very much welcome John Griffiths's comments and I agree with him entirely that it's very much in the same space as the committee report, which is really pleasing—that we are able to take it forward together. 

Going backwards, some of the things that he raises, rightly, are things that we will need to respond to in the round in the report overall. I think the issue around invasive fire-risk assessments, which I think David Melding has raised on a number of occasions and which the committee certainly looked at, will be something we look at in the round in the process that the road map sets out. It's quite comprehensive, the process that's set out, with some stops in it for checks, and so on, so we will be looking to see what can be done with that.

And it has the phases in it. So, it's got the new build—how you put the building regulations in place for a new build—but it's also got the occupancy phase recommendations in it, and I'm very keen to look carefully at the occupancy phase: what should be undertaken by way of retrofit, but then what the ongoing inspection regime should be, as he said. Because actually, as the technology changes and as knowledge changes, it may well be that something comes up that's brilliant in three years' time that nobody in this room has yet thought of, and we want to be able to incorporate new fire safety things, digital things, perhaps, or whatever, into that assessment and not have to rely on legislation to bring them forward.

So, it's partly that we want to think about the response and the way we bring forward the regulations to try to futureproof them as much as possible and to allow fire-risk assessments to look at best practice as it is right now as you do the assessment, so that each time the assessment is done, you're looking again, afresh, at best practice, so that if things have changed in the intervening years, actually you'd expect people to upgrade to that level, because I think that's the real issue. We would have to look to see what can be put in place to finance that. If we're going to do it through the private rented sector, for example, we will need to be able to understand the effects of the needed capital investment, or whatever it is, that might be required. We will need to carefully consider how the system balances the proportionality with making sure that people have the best fire safety.

So, that's why I'm reluctant to answer right now, because we want to look at a lot of those issues in the round before we bring forward the proposals for both the regulations and for the kind of culture change, if you like, that goes with them.