RICS concerns on Building Control Profession registration

Ahead of the 6 April 2024 deadline for the registration of building control professionals in England and Wales, RICS have written to the UK and Welsh Government to express concerns that a vast number of experts will not register in time.

Despite the best efforts of the profession and the independent assessment bodies, there is now a risk that a significant number of building control professionals in England and Wales will not achieve successful certification, and therefore registration, before the 6th of April deadline to allow them to continue their roles.

Without appropriate registered professionals, local authorities and Registered Building Control Approver’s will cease to be able to undertake a building control function post 6th April 2024.

Current feedback indicates that there are a significant number of authorities and private providers in England and Wales that will be in this position. This will impact on a local authority as being without registered building inspectors will obviously have a wide-ranging effect on the construction industry, consumers, regulatory enforcement, and compliance – at a time when the Government are pressing the need for greater building safety and more new home starts which will be frustrated by this crisis.

The impending 6th April 2024 deadline is causing a critical level of stress in the building control profession.

We had in 2022/2023 already started to see an exodus from the profession of the vital expertise that we need in the coming months as part of the new regime – something which was flagged to Government by many in the industry. This in itself is adding to already increased workloads for a severely limited number of building control professionals.  We are hearing worrying reports of individuals in crisis, suffering extreme stress, anxiety, and depression affecting many families.

The short timeframe allowed between final clarity from the Building Safety Regulator on the approval of the independent assessment bodies and their assessment criteria last year has meant that the profession has had insufficient time to prepare for such a significant impact. RICS flagged this as did other bodies in discussions with the BSR last year.

As such, we request an urgent review of the position of all local authorities and private providers in England and Wales, to determine their position with regards to the number of surveyors likely to be certified and registered prior to the deadline.

RICS will continue to update our Building Safety Act FAQ’s to reflect the latest legislation, regulation and guidance, including the response from government on the deadline. Building control professionals are advised to regularly review the ‘How does the Act affect building control?’ section, as further more detailed information is regularly updated here.

Update 4^th March 2024;

Julie James, Minister for Climate Change, Welsh Government issued a Written Statement on 4^th March 2024, which included the sentence “We have listened to concerns over the time required for building inspectors to register with the UK Building Safety Regulator in the appropriate class, and we have laid transitional regulations giving building inspectors until 30 September 2024 to complete their registration while still raising standards in building control.”

RICS warmly welcomes this significant and much needed policy change, and we will continue to work closely with the Welsh Government on this matter.

Disappointingly we have yet to hear that the UK Government will make any similar transitionary changes in England.

Update 14^th March 2024;

The UK Government today announced that there will be a 13 week extension transitionary change in England until July 2024. A competence assessment extension period of 13 weeks will be introduced from 6 April to 6 July 2024 to enable those who meet specific criteria to continue to operate.

RICS welcomes the updates from both the UK and Welsh Governments, announcing transitional arrangements or extensions for registration of building control inspectors.  While we have concerns that 13 weeks within England is a tight timeline, it’s important that we can work with UK governments to keep our industries functioning and support our professionals. We are glad that they listen to our, and industry concerns.

Updated 14 March 2024