The first meeting of the Building Advisory Committee (BAC) took place this week. BAC was established under the Building Safety Act 2022 as part of government’s reforms of building safety. The reforms are designed to create lasting change and make it clear how residential buildings should be constructed, maintained and made safe.

BAC will advise and inform the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in its mission to ensure the safety of residents in high-rise buildings, as well as the Regulator’s other roles including keeping the safety and standards of all buildings under review.

The inaugural meeting was an introduction to BSR and the role of the committee before it starts preparing its workplan. It was chaired by the Health and Safety Executive’s Chief Inspector of Buildings, Peter Baker, who commented:

“I am delighted to welcome the first members to the inaugural meeting of BAC and look forward to working with them in tackling the challenges in the built environment, and in helping to drive culture change and ownership of building safety and standards by industry. BAC’s function is to support the Building Safety Regulator in its important work to protect residents and users of high-rise buildings, identify new and emerging risks affecting the safety and standards of all buildings, and to help develop sensible and proportionate solutions.”

“Establishing the Building Advisory Committee is another important milestone for the Building Safety Regulator and the introduction of the new, more stringent building safety regime following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”

Totus Digital CEO Aman Sharma, who will take up a position on BAC commented:

"It's a great honour and a privilege to have been appointed to BAC by the BSR, and I look forward to continuing the important work of driving behavioural change and embedding responsibility and accountability at the heart of safety critical decision making. I look forward to working with my new colleagues and positively engaging with industry to drive new standards for building safety."