Building safety in Wales: the new regime

Wales now has its own building safety framework – and it doesn’t simply copy the Building Safety Act 2022 as it has been applied in England.

The Welsh law has two parts: a reform of the Building Regulations covering design and construction, which came into force on 1 July 2026, and the Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 27 April 2026 and governs buildings once they are occupied.

Most of the 2026 Act’s main provisions will come into force on dates set by later regulations.

Design and construction: dutyholders and competence

The construction reforms create statutory ‘dutyholder’ roles (client, designer, principal designer, contractor and principal contractor). They also require both individuals and organisations to be competent for the work they do. These rules apply to all building work covered by the Building Regulations, not just to higher-risk buildings.

A ‘higher-risk building’ (HRB) in the Welsh regime is one that is at least 18 metres high or has at least seven storeys and contains at least one residential unit, or is a hospital, care home or children’s home. HRBs must also pass gateway approvals and are subject to ‘golden thread’ information requirements (a digital record of the building’s safety information), change control and mandatory occurrence reporting.

Occupation: three categories of building

The 2026 Act covers most occupied buildings with two or more residential units. Category 1 buildings are those at least 18 metres high or with at least seven storeys. Category 2 buildings are 11 to 18 metres high with five or six storeys. Category 3 buildings are below 11 metres and have fewer than five storeys.

Each building’s ‘accountable person’, broadly the party that owns or must repair the common parts, has duties covering fire safety, record-keeping and co-operation.

Category 1 and 2 buildings must also be registered and managed for structural safety risks. Category 1 buildings carry extra duties, including safety case reports, building certificates and a residents’ engagement strategy.

Wales and England compared

The English and Welsh regimes share a common foundation. Both put responsibility on accountable persons, defined in broadly the same way, and both require registration and building certificates. Both make certain breaches criminal offences and require the tallest blocks to have systems for recording and reporting safety matters. Those who already know the English regime will therefore recognise much of the Welsh framework. There are, however, differences.

In England, Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022 applies only to HRBs. The Welsh law covers almost all multi-occupied residential buildings, whatever their height. Enforcement in Wales is split between local authorities and fire and rescue authorities rather than handled by a central building safety regulator, as in England. Wales also places structural safety duties alongside fire safety duties and extends registration to Category 2 buildings, which have no equivalent in England’s occupation regime. The residential threshold for HRBs during construction is also different.

Practical implications

• Contractors may be treated as accountable persons: a party with a contract (other than a lease) to provide repair, maintenance or safety services, such as a lift maintenance contractor, is treated as an accountable person for the relevant duties. Service contract scopes and indemnities should reflect this
• Information as a deliverable: contractors should expect to provide evidence of competence, compliance and product information, commissioning records, change control documents and golden thread records. These should be specified as contractual deliverables, with payment linked to them where appropriate
• Criminal exposure: many duties carry criminal liability, subject to a reasonable excuse defence. Risk allocation should take this into account
• Historic defects: the Welsh government must make regulations allowing remediation contribution orders, which could reach developers and their associated persons. Landlords must also look to third parties, including contractors and designers, before passing building safety costs on to leaseholders
• Transitional checks: projects that met the transitional criteria before 1 July 2026 may continue under the old rules but can lose that protection if work doesn’t start in time. Confirm which regime applies at the tender stage.

Summary

Wales has taken a broader approach than England. Rather than focusing on the tallest buildings, it brings medium and low-rise blocks within the regime, scaling duties to the risk each category presents.

This reach extends to leases. Implied building safety covenants and service charge rules apply to residential leases in all regulated buildings in Wales, whereas the equivalent English provisions cover only higher-risk buildings and are not yet in force.

Wales also starts from a different position on enforcement. Using existing local authorities and fire and rescue authorities may be familiar to the parties involved, but it means two enforcers rather than one, which parties will need to map carefully.

On historic defects, Wales appears to be following England’s lead, with a remediation order regime that looks similar to Schedule 8 of the 2022 Act.

For organisations working on both sides of the border, the main risk is assuming that English templates will work in Wales. Contract wording, compliance checklists and building classifications prepared for England may not capture the wider Welsh scope. Those with Welsh projects should review their contract terms now.