Part 3: Building Act 1984 Miscellaneous and general Section 57: Fees and charges Background
Paragraphs 5 and 9 of Schedule 1 to the Building Act 1984 provide powers for building regulations to be made to enable local authorities to make schemes to set charges for functions which they undertake under the Building Regulations 2010. These powers have been used to make the Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010 (the "Charging Regulations").
	New section 105B of the Building Act 1984 extends these powers to cover all functions exercised by local authorities in England and Wales, the Building Safety Regulator in England, and the Welsh Ministers in Wales, under the Building Act 1984 and regulations made under it. The power in new section 105B enables levels of fees and charges to be prescribed in the regulations or to be fixed in schemes drawn up by local authorities, the Welsh Ministers or the Building Safety Regulator in accordance with principles set out in the regulations. This will allow the relevant authority to set levels of fees and charges to take account of their different circumstances. Fees and charges set in schemes will need to adhere to the principles of Managing Public Money (in England) and Managing Welsh Public Money (in Wales). Regulations will be subject to the negative procedure, as are the current Charging Regulations.
	Paragraph 82 of Schedule 5 to this Act consequentially repeals paragraphs 5 and 9 of Schedule 1 to the Building Act 1984.
Example
The regulations made using this power will allow local authority charges to include not only specified building regulations functions but all functions they perform under the Building Act 1984 and building regulations. For example, local authorities have functions related to demolitions under Part 3 of the Act, including issuing demolition notices, for which currently they cannot levy charges. Extending the power will enable activities such as this to be covered by charging schemes.
The Building Safety Regulator will have a significant number of functions in England under the Building Act 1984 and regulations made under it, including acting as building control authority for higher-risk buildings and certain other buildings, and overseeing the performance and competence of building control professionals. The Independent Review recommended that the Building Safety Regulator for higher-risk buildings should be funded through a full cost recovery approach. It is therefore expected that the Building Safety Regulator will charge fees for its activities as a building control authority and will charge fees where appropriate for other functions it performs under the Building Act 1984 (for instance, applications for registration as a registered building inspector).