Higher risk-buildings: design and construction

Clients, principal designers and principal contractors for projects involving a higher-risk building must comply with the Building Safety Act 2022.

A higher-risk building is a building that has at least:

• 7 storeys or is at least 18 metres high
• 2 residential units or is a hospital or a care home

There is separate guidance on The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) which may apply to the pre-construction and construction phases of a project even if does not involve a higher-risk building.

Guidance for clients, principal designers and principal contractors

Guidance is available on GOV.UK on:

• creating safe buildings (on GOV.UK)
• reporting building safety incidents and risks (on GOV.UK)

and all the legal duties of clients, principal designers and principal contractors involved in the design and construction of higher-risk buildings (GOV.UK).