Episode 202 - Single Construction Regulator Prospectus

This week we will be talking about the government’s consultation which launched in December 2025 seeking views on the regulatory reform and development of a Single Construction Regulator. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Website:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/single-construction-regulator-prospectus

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Transcript

Episode 202:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about the government’s consultation which launched in December 2025 seeking views on the regulatory reform and development of a single construction regulator. Todays’ episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

This is not just another consultation. It is the proposed wiring diagram for how buildings, products and professionals, including architects, will be regulated across the UK in the future. We briefly spoke about the Building Safety Regulator reform in Episode 177 of the governments intention to change who regulates Gateway 2 applications and the new processes put in place by the Building Safety Act. Now they have launched this consultation to improve the whole gateway process and have a single designated construction regulator.

The starting point, as ever, is Grenfell. From the tragedy, the Inquiry found a regulatory system that had become fragmented, riddled with gaps and conflicts of interest, and vulnerable to manipulation. Different departments handled building regulations, construction products and fire and rescue services. Building control was split between local authorities and approved inspectors, and testing and certification was largely in the hands of commercial bodies. The Inquiry’s Phase 2 report is very clear: that fragmentation was “a recipe for inefficiency and an obstacle to effective regulation”, and its first recommendation is to draw these functions together under a single independent construction regulator, reporting to the Secretary of State. The government formally accepted all of the Inquiry’s findings in February 2025 and committed to this reform.

So what is this Prospectus the government is seeking consultation on proposing:

The Prospectus, published in December 2025 as mentioned, and presented to Parliament, sets out a vision for an integrated regulatory system that brings together three main areas:

• Regulation of buildings
• Regulation of construction products
• Regulation of building professions

This new regulator is envisaged as an evolution and consolidation of existing bodies, particularly the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and the National Regulator for Construction Products (NRCP). It is explicitly framed as the mechanism to deliver the Inquiry’s first recommendation and to underpin wider reforms, including construction products reform and the emerging strategy for professional regulation across the built environment.

The consultation is open until 20 March 2026 and will inform legislation planned after summer 2026, with a formal government response expected that summer. 

Now one of the most important parts of the Prospectus, is the move towards outcome‑based regulation. Rather than treating buildings, products and professions as separate silos, the government proposes four overarching outcomes for the whole “building system”:

These include:

• Having buildings and built environments that are safe and high-performing and deliver a healthy, accessible, secure and sustainable environment for occupants whereby:
• Buildings should be safe from both catastrophic events like fire and structural collapse, and chronic harms such as overheating, poor air quality and damp.
• They should be high-performing achieving high standards across the many social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts which buildings and built environments have – both for their immediate occupants, users, owners, and clients, and for the general public and future generations throughout their whole life, including end‑of‑life, disposal and reuse.

1. Responsible companies and individuals enabled to thrive when they operate in the interests of current and future building users:

• The system should reward those who act competently, ethically and in the interests of current and future building users.
• Those who cut corners or act dishonestly should face proportionate sanctions and should not gain commercial advantage from non‑compliance.
• This outcome includes those directly involved in construction, product manufacturing and use, and building management in related sectors such as insurance and funding. 

1. Construction products are fit for their purpose and users are provided with accurate product information. 

• Products must perform as claimed over their intended life and be supported by reliable data on testing, composition and performance.
• Their full lifecycle approach includes a duty to provide future generations information on design, material composition, testing protocols and production processes necessary for removal, reuse, recycling or safe disposal.

1. The building system is trusted, users have confidence the system will act to prioritise the safety and needs of occupants. 

• Residents, clients and the public should have confidence that the system prioritises their safety and needs, and that bad actors will be identified and held to account.
• Trust is explicitly linked to accessibility of information, visibility of regulatory action, and the ability to respond quickly when things go wrong.

These outcomes are intended to be used to set the statutory objectives, duties and functions of the new regulator, with a clear hierarchy of safety and building standards as the primary objective, and growth, product performance and trust as secondary objectives but only where they do not undermine safety.

The next key element the Prospectus seeks to address, relates to integrating buildings, products and professions:

So let’s unpack how the Prospectus sees integration working across those three pillars, because this is where the day‑to‑day impact on practitioners starts to emerge.

1. Starting firstly with the Regulation of buildings:

For this first pillar, the Prospectus explicitly builds on the Building Safety Act 2022 and the creation of the Building Safety Regulator, recognising the reforms already made from the new higher‑risk building regime. The regulation of buildings is an essential part of the regulatory system to protect residents, ensure buildings are safe, fit for purpose and comply with legal and ethical standards throughout their lifespan, reducing long-term costs and maximising capital and labour productivity. 

As such, the government remains committed to the significant progress made since the Grenfell Tower tragedy to strengthen fire and structural safety in new and existing buildings. These reforms include: 

• Since 2018, a combustible materials bans was introduced on external walls to new residential buildings, hospitals, and student accommodation over 18 metres. In December 2022, this ban was extended to include hotels, hostels and boarding houses of the same height.
• In 2019, a lowered sprinkler threshold in blocks of flats from over 30 metres was lowered to over 11 metres. From March 2025, legislation requires all new care homes to fit sprinklers regardless of height.
• Statutory guidance on second staircases for residential buildings over 18 metres from September 2026 has been introduced.
• Continuous updates to Approved Document B and the shift to European fire classification standards improving consistency and clarity.
• The Building Safety Act 2022 created the Building Safety Regulator to support compliance and effective enforcement of responsible persons duties in all buildings. 
• The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 mandate Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans in all high-rise residential buildings and certain medium-rise buildings from April 2026, along with a requirement for building-level evacuation plans. 
• Since 2023, a new Part 2A regime requiring design and building work to be planned, managed and monitored, with explicit competence duties. Amendments introduced the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor roles to give clear lines of responsibility for compliance and placed duties on clients to manage and resource projects properly. 

Now circling back to the creation of the Building Safety Regulator, under this first pillar of integration and regulations of buildings, the Prospectus confirms that the future regulator will inherit the functions of a duty to keep the safety and standard of all buildings under review, not just higher‑risk ones, and to regulate building control bodies through a phased transition, and that the Building Safety Regulator is being moved out of the Health and Safety Executive into a new standalone body that will become the “home” of the integrated regulator and will directly report to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

An independent review of the building safety regulatory regime, required under section 162 of the Building Safety Act, will be commissioned ahead of April 2027 and will feed into the new regulator’s design.

2. Now moving onto the second key pillar identified within the Prospectus which relates to the Regulation of construction products:

The Inquiry devoted significant attention to the failures in the construction products regime and recommended that key product‑related functions should sit with the single regulator.

The Prospectus notes that:

• The National Regulator for Construction Products (NRCP) already exists within the Office for Product Safety and Standards and has started to remove non‑compliant products from the market.
• A Construction Products Reform Green Paper was published in February 2025, setting out the requirement for system-wide reforms, as historically there was no enforcement of regulations and many manufacturers of product were unaware and unconcerned with regulatory activity. A stronger regulator with wider oversight functions and additional powers will be required to deliver a culture of compliance in the sector. As such the government is seeking to release  a White Paper by spring 2026 that will set out the plans to take forward this ambitious system-wide reform of the construction product regulations with the immediate delivery of any new functions. 
• New regulatory functions arising from product reforms are ultimately intended to sit inside the future single regulator, which will have oversight of construction products regardless of the end use (buildings, infrastructure, or wider built environment).

3. And now lets look at the third and final pillar identified within the Prospectus, the Regulation of building professions:

The Inquiry made specific recommendations around safety‑critical roles, including fire engineering and building control, and called for stronger mechanisms to assure competence, accountability and oversight. The Prospectus goes further, signalling a move toward an overarching strategy for built environment professions, covering:

• Statutory professions such as architects and building control.
• Other high‑risk roles involved in design, specification, construction and management.

As the current system has no consistent definition or enforcement of competence, or standards for public accountability. The aim of the government is to work with key stakeholders, organisations and experts to rationalise and strengthen the system of regulatory oversight and enforcement for the building professions. This represents a generational opportunity to enable better, clearer regulation that enables quality, safety and productivity by building on and streamlining existing structures, rather than layering additional requirements on top of an incoherent and fragmented system. The government is therefore in the process of exploring various options of this new framework.

Steps already under way include:

• The establishment of a Fire Engineers Advisory Panel in April 2025 to provide advice to government on the fire engineering profession.
• A series of stakeholder roundtables in conjunction with sector bodies are being carried out to explore how to introduce and operationalise a licensing scheme for principal contractors. These sit alongside a broader review of the dutyholder regime and how it is functioning, due to report in autumn 2026. 
• A call for evidence on professional regulation planned for spring 2026.
• A proposed overarching strategy for built environment professions due in spring 2027.

For the architecture profession specifically, the Architects Registration Board (ARB) has publicly welcomed the Prospectus and described it as a “generational opportunity” to achieve clearer, better regulation, including potential reforms to the regulation of the title “architect” and exploration of regulated activities in architecture. RIBA has similarly welcomed the drive to reduce fragmentation and raise standards, while stressing the need to work with existing professional bodies and ensure appropriate oversight of competence and ethics.

For trainees and professionals, this points towards a future in which competence, CPD, and possibly specific regulated activities or roles in higher‑risk work may be subject to more explicit, outcomes‑focused oversight across the profession.

The next key theme the Prospectus expands upon is the centrality of residents:

The Prospectus states, residents, especially disabled and vulnerable residents, have historically borne the burden of a system that was fragmented and opaque, with significant barriers to seeking redress. Issues like damp, mould, unsafe cladding and overheating are explicitly framed as ongoing systemic failures that disproportionately affect those with the least power.

As such, and to address these significant concerns, the new regulator is expected to:

• Build on the Building Safety Regulators statutory Residents’ Panel and campaigns like “Your Home, Your Safety” to ensure resident voices directly shape regulatory priorities.
• Monitor the impact of the regulatory system on residents’ lived experience, potentially using indicators such as health outcomes, employment and life expectancy to gauge whether homes are genuinely safe and supportive.
• Help make residents informed consumers by providing accessible information at key moments, for example, when moving into a building, facing major works, or needing to escalate concerns.

For practitioners, this reinforces a trajectory in which engagement with residents is not simply “good practice” but intrinsic to demonstrating compliance, competence and ethical practice.

And lastly, the final next key theme the Prospectus focuses on relates to the roles and responsibilities in an integrated regulatory system:

The Prospectus devotes an entire chapter to clarifying roles in the future ecosystem and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is positioned as the steward of this building ecosystem, accountable to Parliament and responsible for ensuring the regulator is properly resourced and aligned with national priorities.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as such, is expected to:

• Sponsor and oversee the regulator as a Non‑Departmental Public Body and provide them with strategic policy information setting out government priorities to inform their activities. 
• Appoint the regulator’s non‑executive board, including the Chair, and set strategic priorities via periodic statements.
• Seek expert advice from the regulator to shape policy on building safety and the built environment.
   

Now, the regulator itself, is expected to:

• Play an integral role to foster effective accountability and shared responsibility across the sector. As well as operate independently within its statutory remit, but in strategic alignment with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
• Lead on accountability and enforcement, using proportionate, risk‑based approaches to target harmful behaviour and protect those who are doing the right thing.
• Maintain strong relationships with local regulators, fire and rescue authorities, ombudsmen and other sectoral bodies, sharing information and avoiding duplication.

The Prospectus stresses that the regulator must also be open to scrutiny and feedback, and must systematically engage with SMEs, residents and different parts of industry, not just larger, well‑resourced organisations.

To support this initiative, the wider industry also is also expected to take on responsibility and promote culture change:

The industry is explicitly told it must “step up”. The Inquiry was clear that some industry actors exploited ambiguity and fragmentation to put profit before safety, and the Prospectus reinforces the message that this cannot continue.

The expectations on the industry include:

• Going beyond bare regulatory compliance to embed safety and quality throughout the building lifecycle, from briefing and procurement to operation and deconstruction.
• Addressing structural issues such as “race to the bottom” procurement models, fragmented responsibilities and poor information management.
• Supporting the regulator with data, expertise and leadership, including through sector‑led initiatives and competence frameworks.

For architects, that translates into an obligation to challenge unrealistic briefs, resist unsafe value engineering, insist on robust information, and work collaboratively to manage risk across the project team.

So what are the next steps and timeline of these proposed changes:

Firstly, an annual report on progress to deliver the Inquiry’s recommendations will be published and laid in Parliament in February 2026 and the consultation will close in March 2026. 

Followed by:

• The government’s response in Summer 2026 to the Prospectus consultation, with more detail on the regulator’s design and legislative proposals.
• And by April 2027, an independent statutory review of the building safety regime use expected to have been commissioned and published.
• Generally, primary legislation will be required to formally establish the new regulator, define outcomes, duties and functions, and transfer existing functions from bodies like the Building Safety Regulator and National Regulator for Construction Products.

The Single Construction Regulator Prospectus is not a niche policy paper, it is a blueprint for reshaping how the UK regulates buildings, products and the professions that design and deliver them.

Let’s sum up what we discussed today:

• In December 2025 a Prospectus was published setting out a vision for an integrated regulatory system for a single, integrated construction regulator being proposed to bring together the regulation of buildings, products, and professionals ending decades of fragmentation exposed by the Grenfell Inquiry.
• Outcome‑based regulation will define the new system, focusing on safe, high‑performing buildings, responsible practitioners, trustworthy products, and public confidence.
• The Building Safety Regulator will evolve into a new standalone body overseeing all building safety and standards, not just higher‑risk buildings, and reporting directly to government.
• Professional regulation is being reimagined, with stronger oversight of competence, clearer accountability across built environment professions, and closer engagement with residents.
• The Consultation runs until March 2026, with legislation expected after summer 2026. Shaping a generational shift in how safety, quality and professionalism are governed across the built environment.