My Lords, I apologise to noble Lords; my usually invisible hearing disability got in the way there.
Amendment 3, in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Pinnock, joins up very neatly to what the Minister said in his speech winding up the previous debate. He wants the regulator to have a fire safety oversight of all buildings, not just the high-rise ones; he wants to see high standards in all buildings. That is exactly what I want to achieve, which is why I have tabled this amendment.
5 pm
I must admit that when you look at the amendment it is not at all transparent what we are trying to achieve, so I hope your Lordships will excuse me for taking it back a little and explaining what it does. Essentially, it draws attention to the fact that it is already possible for the Minister to introduce a golden thread of certification and oversight for every building construction project in the country. That has been possible since 2004, with the passage of the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, and noble Lords will see that the amendment refers to Sections 8 and 9 of that Act.
The Bill before us imposes very firm and rigid guidelines on how fire safety should be dealt with in high-rise, high-risk buildings. I strongly support that, as of course did the report by Dame Judith Hackitt, on which the whole foundations of the Bill sit. Central to that is the idea of a golden thread whereby you can always find out who made the decision, who they passed it on to, and who made the next decision. It will therefore always be possible to find out and, if you put it the other way round, make somebody accountable for every decision made. Clearly, that is the central point of the Hackitt report and of the Building Safety Bill.
High-rise buildings, despite various attempts to widen the range, probably include about 40,000 buildings at the most, which is of course a large number, but the Minister has said that he wants the building safety regulator to look after the other 24 million. This amendment deals with what should happen with the other 24 million. It makes it as clear as it can, within the limits of parliamentary drafting, that there are existing powers that have lain dormant for 18 years, during which time it would have been possible for there to be regulations that set out that there must be a named, appointed person in charge of a building project and there must be a certificate of completion that is submitted to the building control authority to indicate that the building has been constructed according to the regulations. There is a track, if you like, already available there, but, as I say, 18 years later, it has not been implemented.
I should have said at the outset of the whole of this debate that not only have I failed to declare any interests at all, but I particularly did not remind the Committee that I was the Minister responsible for building regulations for two years between 2010 and 2012, so I am one of the people who did not implement this. We have all had good reasons why we did not do so. This amendment proposes that in future we do not leave it to Ministers with all their competing priorities, and that rather than the Secretary of State having this power already in legislation to make regulations on the golden thread, they are exercisable instead by the building safety regulator as and when it decides, based on its assessment of the proportionality and the necessity of doing so in any particular class or category of buildings, or any particular scope of building regulations, to ensure that this comes to fruition.
The alternative is that we do not do that and that it relies on the Secretary of State making a decision, which has not been taken so far, to bring into scope on a golden thread basis all 24 million buildings that, at the moment, are excused from taking that particular route.
This is not only about the fire regulations. There is evidence of regulatory failure in a wide range of construction matters, including damp penetration—indeed, the Minister has mentioned them himself. There are plenty of other examples; there is a whole lot of stuff to do with securing energy efficiency in buildings, for example, which is treated cavalierly by those who install it, so there is a shortage of performance on that, too. If we want to do anything to improve the safety, let alone well-being in the broader sense, of the inhabitants of the 24 million buildings that are outside the scope of higher risk, I put it to the Minister that he should consider this amendment.
Of course, there is an alternative approach. The Minister could say that, despite the powers lying dormant on the statute book for 18 years, it is the current Administration’s intention to exercise those powers and to make sure that those regulations come into force. That would be fully in accordance with Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommendations. I therefore look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say on that score.
In this string of amendments is Amendment 135, in the name of my noble friend Lord Shipley, which is about making sure that permitted development rights do not excuse any building from having to comply with the requirements of the Bill. I can deploy the arguments about the importance of securing that, but I would have thought that it was absolutely transparent to the Minister. Permitted development rights are resulting in construction of buildings, in particular homes, that are well below a suitable standard, and which would certainly not receive approval in the normal course of events and are at least feasibly creating significant fire risks for the residents in those blocks. I share the concern of my noble friend should we not deal with that particular loophole.
Again, I look forward to the Minister explaining how he will exercise the powers, which are already on his desk, to have a named person and a certified building at the end of every building project, and to him being able to satisfy me that no permitted development project will be allowed to transgress the fire safety rules that will be established through the Bill before us. I beg to move.