Episode 220 - Government Consultation on Building Notices

This week we will be talking about Building Notices and how the process relating to Building Regulations applications is adapting to a post Building Safety Act system. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Websites:

• https://www.riba.org/work/insights-and-resources/professional-features/do-building-notices-have-a-place-alongside-the-building-safety-act/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/plan-approval-requirements-for-new-builds-and-fire-safety-order-buildings/plan-approval-requirements-for-new-builds-and-fire-safety-order-buildings

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Transcript

Episode 220:

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 Building Notices and how the process relating to Building Regulations applications is adapting to a post Building Safety Act system. Todays’ episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria. 

And make sure to stay until the end for today’s scenario.

Today’s topic is highly relevant to everyday practice, especially for those working on domestic or smaller-scale projects where the choice of building control route has real consequences for how you manage a job, compared to the high risk building route. We briefly spoke about the processes and changes in episode 101 when the Building Safety Act initially came to effect, today’s episode covers the actual process now undertaken 2 years on. 

So let’s start by firstly looking at what a Building Notice is:

A Building Notice is one of the procedural routes available under the Building Regulations 2010 for notifying a local authority that building work is about to take place. It is governed by Regulations 12 and 13 of the Building Regulations 2010 and applies specifically to the Local Authority Building Control route. When a building notice is submitted, work can begin on site as soon as two days after the notice is given to the local authority.

The critical thing to understand about a building notice is what it does not require, a full set of plans submitted for approval in advance. Unlike a full plans application, where detailed drawings are required, checked and approved by the local authority before work begins, a building notice involves almost no upfront plans checking. Compliance is instead ensured through inspection of the work as it progresses on site, with the local authority able to request specific information, such as structural calculations, as and when they need it. Meaning the route does not remove the need to provide material that demonstrates compliance. A common misunderstanding is that the building inspector will act like a project problem-solver as the work proceeds, but that is not the point of the route. The system relies on competent people doing competent work, not on the inspector carrying the design risk or correcting every issue as it emerges. That misconception can create a false sense of security, especially on projects where clients or contractors assume the lack of pre-approved drawings means the rules are somehow looser.

That is why building notices are often conflated with planning processes or misunderstood as a ‘lesser’ form of approval. In reality, they sit alongside other regulatory routes, each serving different purposes. The building notice procedure was designed for relatively straightforward, lower-risk domestic projects where the builder or homeowner fully understands the regulations and the compliance requirements.  In other words, the route is quicker in procedural terms, but it does not reduce the underlying duty to comply. It was never intended as a mechanism for complex or higher-risk building work.

Whether the project is proceeding through full plans or a building notice, architects and the wider dutyholder team still need to think carefully about competence, coordination, sequencing, and the consequences of incomplete design information. The dutyholder roles are key here because the building notice route can only function well if the people using it understand the responsibilities that come with it. Now the moment the work becomes more complex, the limitations of the route become more obvious. That is where the current debate begins, not with the existence of building notices in theory, but with how they are used in real projects, and whether their use still feels appropriate in the post-Building Safety Act landscape.

It is also important to note here that when building work is regulated by a Registered Building Control Approver under the private sector route, formerly known as approved inspectors, the process is different. In the Registered Building Control Approver route, an Initial Notice is submitted and the Registered Building Control Approver oversees the work. There are currently no mandatory plan approval requirements for the Registered Building Control Approver route in the way that the full plans application is mandated for certain Local Authority route projects, though the Registered Building Control Approve will typically undertake plans checking as best practice. Plans certificates can also be given by a Registered Building Control Approver at the request of the person carrying out the work, though at present these are optional.

Let’s expand further on that:

When the Building Safety Act came into force on the 1st of October 2023, it brought the most significant changes to building safety regulation in England since the 1980s. However, at the point of commencement, it did not abolish the building notice procedure. The Act transformed the obligations placed on dutyholders across all projects, including smaller domestic ones, but it left the procedural routes for building control applications largely intact for non-higher-risk buildings. So building notices continued to be a lawful route for local authority building control applications for lower-risk domestic work.

The government’s own analysis reinforces concerns about the building notice route. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has engaged with local authorities and the evidence is quite stark. Based on feedback from local authorities, projects that use a building notice are more likely to breach the building regulations and tend to require enhanced inspection schedules to ensure compliance, compared to projects using a full plans application.

In fact, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government analysis has found that local authorities actually charge slightly more to regulate complex projects, such as new dwellings, using the building notice route, precisely because of the increased inspection requirements and the greater likelihood of non-compliance. The additional cost reflects the reality that without upfront plans checking, building control bodies must work harder to catch problems on site, often at stages when remedial work is more disruptive and expensive.

This is a significant finding. It challenges the assumption, sometimes made by developers or contractors, that a building notice is a faster or cheaper option. In practice, for anything beyond straightforward minor works, it may be neither.

So what is the current plan relating to building notices and what other areas is the consulation seeking to address:

This brings us to the most significant recent development on this topic. On the 2nd of April 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published an open consultation titled ‘Plan Approval Requirements for New Builds and Fire Safety Order Buildings’. This consultation represents a serious and systematic proposal to restrict or remove the use of building notices for certain categories of work.

The consultation is seeking views on four main areas of proposed change:

• Amendments to the scope of requirements for mandated applications for building control approval with full plans for new dwellings and some material alterations, specifically preventing the use of building notices for these types of building work.
• Amendments to the requirements for initial notices and the grounds for rejecting final certificates for new dwellings and buildings to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies.
• Amendments to requirements to consult with Fire and Rescue Authorities for Fire Safety Order buildings.
• Transitional arrangements to manage the shift to the new requirements.

The government’s core proposal is this, that all new build dwellings using the local authority building control route should be required to submit an application for building control approval with full plans. Building notices would no longer be a valid route for new dwellings.

The rationale offered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is compelling. Firstly, the complexity of new dwellings and the level of risk inherent in that complexity justifies the additional scrutiny that full plans approval provides. Approved plans make control of building work by registered building inspectors more efficient and more effective. Approval of plans is, as the consultation document puts it, ‘a pivotal step in assuring that the proposed building is, from the very start of building work, more likely to comply with the requirements of the building regulations.’

Secondly, there is a financial dimension tied to the Building Safety Levy. The Building Safety Levy Regulations comes into force on 1st of October 2026. The levy can only be charged on projects that use an initial notice or a full plans application it cannot be charged on projects using a building notice. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is concerned that this creates a perverse incentive in that developers might use building notices specifically to avoid paying the levy, which would undermine both the intent of the levy and the safety of those dwellings. Closing that loophole is part of what this consultation is designed to achieve.

The consultation also addresses a long-standing concern about consistency between the local authority building control route and the Registered Building Control Approver route. At present, the two routes have different requirements when it comes to plans submission and approval, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has a stated ambition to create greater parity between them.

The key proposal here is to make plans certificates mandatory for all new dwellings and all buildings to which the Fire Safety Order applies, under the Registered Building Control Approver route. At the moment, plans certificates are optional and given by a Registered Building Control Approver only at the request of the person carrying out the work. Making them mandatory for new dwellings and Fire Safety Order buildings would mean that the Registered Building Control Approver cannot give a final certificate confirming the work is complete and compliant, unless a plans certificate has first been given.

The consultation also proposes allowing plans certificates to be given with conditions or requirements. So a Registered Building Control Approver could set conditions for the provision or modification of plans by agreed dates or stages of work, and building work could not proceed beyond an agreed point until the Registered Building Control Approver received satisfactory plans. This is a more flexible approach than requiring a completely clean plans certificate before work starts, and it recognises that design development often continues into the construction phase.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is alert to a practical risk in all of this in that if more stringent plan approval requirements are introduced for the Local Authority route alone, without corresponding changes to the Registered Building Control Approver route, the two routes could become even more dissimilar than they currently are. More demanding requirements for Local Authorities could simply push developers towards Registered Building Control Approvers, undermining the building safety intent of the reforms. The parallel proposals for mandatory plans certificates in the Registered Building Control Approver route are designed to prevent that from happening.

There is also a section of the consultation that deals with the requirements to consult Fire and Rescue Authorities, and this is particularly relevant for architects working on commercial or mixed-use buildings to which the Fire Safety Order applies.

Currently, Registered Building Control Approvers must consult the relevant Fire and Rescue Authority at multiple stages, at the initial notice stage, the amendment notice stage, the plans certificate stage, and the final certificate stage. Local authorities, by contrast, are only required to consult when reviewing a full plans application. The government is proposing to rationalise this. For Registered Building Control Approvers, the proposal is to limit mandatory Fire and Rescue Authority consultation to the initial notice and final certificate stages where a plans certificate is given at the final certificate stage, and also at the plans certificate stage where it is given earlier. For Local Authorities, the proposal is to introduce a second Fire and Rescue Authority consultation point, ahead of the completion certificate, to check compliance with Part B of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations.

The government acknowledges that the Fire and Rescue Authority capacity may be a limiting factor in implementing these reforms, and the consultation is explicitly seeking views on whether authorities have sufficient capacity to accommodate the proposed changes. For architects, the practical implication is that there may be more structured touchpoints with the Fire and Rescue Authority during a project, which is likely to be a positive development for buildings where fire safety is a primary concern.

Now, the consultation also addresses transitional arrangements, which is important because these proposals we just went through represent a significant operational change for building control bodies, developers, and design teams alike.

The government is therefore proposing that the requirement for all new dwellings to use a full plans application, rather than a building notice, should come into force by the 1st of October 2026. This date is tied to the commencement of the Building Safety Levy. Any delay beyond that date risks the perverse incentive for developers to use building notices to avoid the levy. So that date is effectively fixed.

For other types of building work such as extensions, loft conversions, and structural alterations, where the consultation is also exploring whether building notices should be restricted, a longer transitional period is proposed. These works are not connected to the same levy-avoidance risk, so there is more flexibility in the timeline.

For the Registered Building Control Approver route, specifically the proposals around mandatory plans certificates, a transitional period is also proposed, to give Registered Building Control Approvers time to prepare and to avoid overloading the system in September 2026 when developers may rush to submit before the levy comes into force.

If the proposals are confirmed following the consultation, the building control landscape for new dwellings will look noticeably different by the end of 2026.

So what does this mean for architects:

For architects, the practical lesson is not to treat building notices as a shortcut. They should be used only where the project genuinely suits an inspection-led route and where the design team is confident that compliance can be demonstrated without relying on late-stage improvisation. If the work is complex, the strategy should probably move toward full plans and a more robust pre-construction approval process.

If you are working on domestic projects undertaking extensions, loft conversions, or smaller refurbishments, the building notice route remains available for now, provided you are using local authority building control and the project falls below the threshold where full plans are mandatory. However, given the evidence that building notice projects are more likely to result in non-compliance and enhanced inspection requirements, you should be asking yourself whether this is actually the right route for your project and your client. The building notice places the full weight of compliance on the dutyholder. If your client is a domestic client, under the Building Safety Act their duties are passed to the contractor or principal contractor. But as the designer and principal designer, your statutory obligations to ensure your design complies with Building Regulations remain, regardless of which building control route is used.

If you are working on new build dwellings, you should be watching this consultation closely. If the government proceeds with its proposals, and the direction of travel strongly suggests it will, the building notice will not be available for new dwellings from October 2026. All new dwellings using the Local Authority route will require a full plans application. That has implications for your programme planning, for the level of design detail you need to have ready at the point of application, and for your conversations with clients about timelines.

If you are working on buildings to which the Fire Safety Order applies like commercial premises, blocks of flats, or mixed-use buildings you should be aware of both the existing requirements and the proposed changes to plans certificates and Fire and Rescue Authority consultation. The consultation is an opportunity for you, your practice, or your professional body to respond and shape how these requirements are implemented.

And more broadly, regardless of the specific project type, the direction of travel is clear, the building control system in England is moving towards more rigorous upfront scrutiny of plans, greater parity between the Local Authority and Registered Building Control Approver routes, and less reliance on a compliance-through-inspection-only approach. That is a positive development from a building safety perspective, and it aligns with everything the Building Safety Act 2022 was designed to achieve in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

The key takeaway is not that building notices should be abolished. It is that they should be used deliberately, not casually. If a project is simple, the route can be proportionate. If it is not, then the safer and more responsible choice is likely to be full plans and early technical resolution.

Let’s sum up what we ran through today:

• Building Notices are a procedural route under Regulations 12 and 13 of the Building Regulations 2010 for the local authority building control route, allowing work to begin without prior approval of detailed plans. They are intended for relatively low-risk domestic projects.
• The Building Safety Act 2022 did not abolish building notices but significantly increased the dutyholder obligations on all those involved in building work, making the consequences of non-compliance more serious across all project types.
• Evidence gathered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from local authorities indicates that projects using a building notice are more likely to breach Building Regulations and require enhanced inspection than those using a full plans application.
• A government consultation published on the 2nd of April 2026 proposes to restrict or remove the use of building notices for new dwellings and to introduce mandatory plans certificates for the Registered Building Control Approver route for new dwellings and Fire Safety Order buildings.
• The proposed changes are linked to the Building Safety Levy coming into force on the 1st of October 2026, with that date acting as a target for the removal of building notices for new dwellings to prevent levy avoidance.
• Transitional arrangements are proposed for other types of building work and for the Registered Building Control Approver route, with longer implementation periods where the levy risk does not apply.
• For architects, the practical takeaway is to understand which building control route is appropriate for each project, to ensure your design is compliant regardless of which route is used, and to keep a close watch on the outcome of this consultation as you plan your projects through 2026 and beyond.