Part 3: Building Act 1984 Miscellaneous and general Section 54: Functions under Part 3 of Building Act 1984 Background
Part 3 of the Building Act 1984 places a number of functions on local authorities in relation to buildings. These include the ability to issue a notice to the building owner requiring work to be undertaken on the building relating to matters such as drains, sanitary conveniences, provision of food storage, and means of escape. Functions are also placed on local authorities to enable them to require action to be taken, or take action themselves in relation to dangerous, defective and dilapidated buildings. Part 3 also provides functions for local authorities in relation to demolitions of buildings.
Example
There is a potential overlap in respect of higher-risk buildings between some of the functions placed on local authorities under Part 3 of the Building Act 1984 and the Building Safety Regulator’s regulatory role for higher-risk buildings in occupation. A specific example is the ability under section 72 of the Building Act 1984 for a local authority to issue a notice requiring extra means of escape from the building in a fire. For higher-risk buildings, the Accountable Person will have needed to demonstrate the adequacy of the means of escape in the safety case for the building.
To avoid any confusion and potential duplication of regulation, therefore, the Secretary of State will be able to allocate functions under Part 3 for higher-risk buildings formally to the Building Safety Regulator. Alternatively, those functions may continue to rest with the local authority or be exercised jointly.
This approach may be needed for matters where there are links with local authority responsibilities under the Housing Act 2004 or environmental health legislation. It will be important that where the local authority retains responsibility for certain matters, it informs the Building Safety Regulator if it intends to exercise the relevant function(s) so that there is effective coordination between the two.