APS welcomes Wednesday’s announcement by the government to start putting in place plans for a new Single Construction Regulator to bring together standards across buildings, products and professionals.

These proposals follow the first recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, published in September 2024, that government create a ‘single construction regulator’. They set out the vision for a better regulatory system that sees securing the safety or people in buildings and improving the standard (and/or performance) of buildings as the regulator’s primary, non-negotiable, objective. The reforms are also about bringing coherence to a fragmented regulatory system, which the government sees as crucial for their mission for economic growth.

Within the prospectus, government also highlights how it to create a new framework to underpin the competence, skills and conduct of those working in the industry, working alongside the building professions, with a view to achieving collective accountability across the whole system.

Key proposals in the prospectus cover 5 areas:

1. Regulation of building professionals -

• In first instance, government remains committed to implementing the recommendations for the regulation of certain high-risk professions performing safety-critical roles.

• A Fire Engineers Authoritative Statement has been finalised and issued (you can find the separate newsitem here).

• Government will also consult on the other safety-critical roles, including the fire risk assessor profession and principal contractors (how to introduce and operationalise a licensing scheme for those principal contractors). These consultations will sit alongside a broader review of the dutyholder regime, due to report in autumn 2026.

• Government wants to go further than the safety-critical roles however, and it wants to take a holistic overview of regulation, competence and culture across all those operating in the built environment.

• Government therefore wants to deliver an overarching strategy for the built environment professions which will be published in spring 2027, as the current system of regulation and oversight is too complex and fragmented, alongside reforms to building regulation.

• Recognition is given to endeavours from many in the industry to drive skills and competence, while recognising that there is generally insufficient recognition and benefit for those who do the right thing and limited consequences for those who do not.

• Government is exploring options for the design, form and scope of the new regulatory framework that will inform the overarching strategy for regulating built environment professions, a call for evidence will be published in spring 2026.

• Specific consideration is given to the relationship between a potential new professional oversight function of the single regulator and, for example, existing regulators and professional bodies, and specific questions are raised to that end which APS will need to engage with.

2. Regulation of buildings -

• Reforms on the building regulatory systems proposed, will apply on an England only bases. However, the government’s ambition is for an effective, four nations approach to regulatory reform. They will work together with the Devolved Administrations to that end.

• Confirmation of the independent review of the building safety regulatory regime by April 2027.

• The Building Safety Regulator (BSR), which is currently transitioning to a Non-Departmental Public Body under Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) sponsorship, will take with them some of the functions named in the Inquiry’s recommendations for the new regulator. The future regulator will also maintain the BSR’s current regulatory responsibilities, including in relation to new and existing buildings, residential and non-residential buildings, and higher- and non-higher-risk buildings. Proposals for the future regulator will take account of any subsequent recommendations, including the work of the Building Control Independent Panel.

3. Regulation of construction products – the government will bring forward a Construction Products Reform White Paper by spring 2026, setting out plans for reform, building on the Green Paper which was published in February 2025. Any new regulatory functions in the White Paper, will sit in the new regulator, not the existing National Regulator for Construction Products (NRCP). Construction reforms will apply UK-wide, as it is a reserved matter.

4. Digital, data and efficient regulatory delivery – the regulator will have a digital-first approach, focusing on a more connected and coherent digital environment to support information sharing and enable more transparent oversight.

5. Residents – Government recognises the best way to deliver for residents is for the system to work first time, allowing trust to be rebuilt and residents to recognise a system that works for them they also want to make sure support for redress options are available alongside better information access.

APS input to date and in future on the regulation of building professionals

Of particular importance for APS and its members are the specific considerations in the prospectus of the relationship between a potential new professional oversight function of the single regulator and, for example, existing regulators and professional bodies, and the associated questions government is asking itself at the moment.

APS met with MHCLG representatives in November, in anticipation of this prospectus, discussing in detail our views on the regulation of building professions. APS will continue to engage once the call for evidence on the regulation of building professionals is issued in spring 2026, as well as reviewing the prospectus’ consultation proposals in greater detail and submitting a response by 20 March, when the consultation closes.

A full government response to the prospectus’ consultation is due to follow in summer 2026, and that response will set out more detail on regulatory reform, before the new Regulator can take on the proposed new functions detailed in the consultation document. The ‘new’ Regulator will start delivering existing functions in the meantime from 27th January onwards, as a Non-Departmental Public Body under MHCLG sponsorship.

The Single Regulator Prospectus can be found here.