Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control authorities and building regulations Section 32: Building control authorities Background
Section 91 of the Building Act 1984 places a duty on the local authority to execute the Act and enforce building regulations’ requirements in its area.
	In England, to avoid duplication of regulation, the Building Safety Regulator will be responsible for all building regulations matters when building work is undertaken on higher-risk buildings (not just fire and structural safety matters). Therefore, it will be the building control authority for all building work on higher-risk buildings, or for work which leads to a building becoming a higher-risk building, for instance through the addition of extra storeys to an existing building or ceasing to be a higher-risk building with the removal of storeys from the building or change of use.
	Also, there will be multi-building sites in England comprising both higher-risk buildings and non-higher-risk buildings. Although the Building Safety Regulator will automatically be the regulator for the higher-risk building, a local authority or registered building control approver would normally be the building control body for the non-higher risk building.
	The developer may prefer to deal with one body for the whole site. Given that neither a local authority nor a registered building control approver can undertake building control for the higher-risk building, this would mean the developer would choose the Building Safety Regulator to be responsible for providing building control for the whole site.
	The regulator’s notice provides the mechanism for doing this in England.
	Section 91 of the Building Act 1984 applies equally to Wales.
	In Wales the local authority for the area, or as designated by Welsh Ministers under building regulations, will be responsible for all building regulations matters when building work is undertaken on higher-risk buildings including similarly for work which leads to a building becoming or ceasing to be a higher-risk building.
	For multi-building sites in Wales comprising both higher-risk buildings and non-higher-risk buildings although the developer may choose either a local authority or registered building control approver as the building control body for the non-higher risk building, the developer may choose to utilise the designated local authority for the whole site.
Example
If a developer ("the relevant person") wishes the Building Safety Regulator to act as the building control authority for a multi-building site including both higher-risk buildings and non-higher risk buildings, they can seek the Building Safety Regulator’s agreement to issuing, jointly, a regulator’s notice. The Building Safety Regulator has to agree to undertake the building control function for non-higher risk buildings. If they do not, building control would be the responsibility of the local authority or a registered building control approver. A regulator’s notice can be issued only for sites where there is a higher-risk building and where work involves work on the higher-risk building.
It is envisaged that the local authority would have very limited grounds for rejecting a regulator’s notice on procedural grounds (for instance incorrect information has been supplied) and this would need to be done within a period prescribed in regulations.
Where the Building Safety Regulator is acting as the building control authority for a non-higher risk building, it will operate the same building control functions for the non-higher risk building as would a local authority where plans have been deposited.
Once work on a non-higher risk building has completed, the Building Safety Regulator will issue a completion certificate as provided for under building regulations. The regulator’s notice still has effect in respect of that work, i.e. a local authority cannot take enforcement action in respect of that work at a later date. A new regulator’s notice will be needed for any future building work on the non-higher risk building, or, alternatively, it would be open for the person undertaking the work to use the local authority or a registered building control approver for building control.