Our View: Making the Building Safety (Wales) Bill work in practice

Background

Welsh housing associations’ core purpose is to provide safe and affordable homes. The Bill is founded on three core principles: safety, accountability, and resident voice. These are all principles which housing associations already take seriously, which is why in 2020, every housing association in Wales committed to Safety First in Housing - a framework which supports achieving and maintaining a transparent approach to health and safety matters with residents. This voluntary initiative aims to embed high standards of resident engagement and responsiveness on safety concerns, and puts housing associations in a strong position ahead of the legislation being in place.

Summary of our position:

Community Housing Cymru (CHC) fully supports the Bill’s aims, and agrees that its reforms are both necessary and overdue to improve resident safety, accountability, and public confidence.

As the representative body for housing associations in Wales, our focus now is ensuring that the Bill is proportionate, practical, and deliverable on the ground.

Successful implementation requires the Welsh Government to address four critical barriers.

Our focus: Addressing Implementation Barriers

1. Securing Funding and Capacity

The new regime introduces major responsibilities for housing associations, including the 'golden thread' of safety information, Safety Case Reports, and Structural Risk Assessments. These duties require significant work and highly specialised experts

• The Issue: There is a current shortage of specialist experts in Wales, and the new Building Safety Regulator must be properly funded to avoid the costly delays and inconsistent enforcement seen in England. Critically, the sector needs time and resources to upgrade our existing information systems to meet these enhanced requirements
• Our Action: We are calling for targeted funding to be provided directly to the sector. We deem it unacceptable for the costs of meeting these essential new safety standards to be passed on to tenants and leaseholders. We also need a fully equipped and resourced Welsh Building Safety Regulator.

2. Competency and workforce

The Bill places new legal duties on organisations to employ "competent individuals" with "sufficient expertise." However, the detail of what this means remains unclear.

• The issue: The sector is facing a skills crisis - there is an acute shortage of qualified building safety professionals, fire risk assessors, and other competent persons in Wales. This gap is a significant barrier to fulfilling the new duties, especially in the short-term. Uncertainty around the definition of 'sufficient expertise' makes it impossible to plan recruitment and training with confidence.
• Our action: We are calling for a clear, strategic workforce plan from the Welsh Government to train, certify, and grow the necessary workforce. This clarity must be provided immediately to avoid implementation delays and inconsistency across the sector.

3. Clarity of the Rules

A major concern is the Bill’s over-reliance on secondary legislation and guidance - meaning much of the practical, day-to-day detail of the new law is still being developed.

• The Issue: This uncertainty prevents landlords from effectively preparing for implementation. While guidance is helpful, the primary legislation itself must be clearer and more complete to ensure consistency and public trust. Provisions using vague terms, to be defined later in guidance, undermine transparency and reduce necessary scrutiny by the Senedd. We also need a clear roadmap for how the new rules will align with existing laws like the Fire Safety Order and the Renting Homes Act.
• Our Action: We are actively collaborating with government and experts to ensure all regulations and guidance are clear, practical, and issued well before the law starts. We are also calling for a clear, phased implementation approach that gives dutyholders and landlords the sufficient lead-in time needed to prepare.

4. Proportionality

The new law covers all buildings with two or more homes, giving it a wider scope than the equivalent law in England.

• The Issue: While we support the principle of wider coverage to maximise resident safety, the practical requirements must be manageable for smaller buildings.
• Our Action: We are working with our members and the Welsh Government to ensure that the practical requirements for smaller buildings are proportionate and do not compromise the crucial safety standards we are all striving to achieve.