Welsh Ministers have confirmed a new commencement date for key Building Safety Act 2022 powers in Wales. Under The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2025, further provisions amending the Building Act 1984 will take effect on 1 July 2026. These sit within Part 3 of the 2022 Act, which reworks building control law.
From that date, building control in Wales will gain new enforcement tools and time limits. The package includes compliance and stop notices (section 38), a strengthened offence for breaching building regulations (section 39), automatic lapse of building control approvals and initial notices after three years where work has not started (section 36), ministerial default powers over underperforming authorities (section 45), and a backstop allowing the Welsh Ministers to determine certain higher‑risk building applications where decisions are delayed (section 37).
Compliance and stop notices will allow a building control authority to require specific remedial steps within a set period, or to halt specified work until serious non‑compliance is addressed. Breach of either notice is a criminal offence. Appeals lie to the appropriate court or tribunal, and a stop notice remains in force unless the court directs otherwise. Regulations may prescribe form, content, service and notification requirements for these notices.
The offence regime for breaching building regulations is upgraded from a summary‑only offence to one triable either way, with penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine. Separately, the statutory time limit for local authorities to require alteration or removal of non‑compliant work under section 36 of the 1984 Act extends to ten years, materially lengthening the enforcement window.
Approvals will no longer sit indefinitely. Building control approvals will lapse automatically if work has not started within three years, including on multi‑building sites for any individual building where work has not commenced. Initial notices and plans certificates (including public body notices) will also lapse after three years. This introduces a clear longstop akin to planning permission time limits.
Where a building control authority fails to determine a prescribed application relating to higher‑risk building work within the relevant period-and no extension has been agreed-the applicant may ask the appropriate national authority to decide the original application. In Wales this means escalation to the Welsh Ministers, with detailed procedure set through building regulations.
Default powers are also scheduled. If building control functions are not being exercised to the expected standard and safety is at risk, the appropriate national authority may transfer specified functions from a local authority to itself or to another authority. In Wales, this power is vested in the Welsh Ministers.
The commencement also tidies statute. Consequential amendments in Schedule 5 to the 2022 Act take effect to reframe multiple Building Act provisions around the term “building control authority” and to align appeals, notices and related procedures with the new regime. These are technical but ensure the enforcement framework operates consistently once the new powers start.
In Wales, a “building control authority” means the local authority unless regulations designate another authority for specified higher‑risk cases; registered building control approvers (the successor to approved inspectors) are separately regulated but are not the enforcement authority for compliance or stop notices. This reflects definitions inserted into the Building Act 1984 and the Welsh regulations that established the approver regime.
For local authorities, this is a six‑month preparation window to finalise policies, templates and training for notices, appeals handling and evidential standards, and to review investigation files in light of the extended ten‑year period. Developers and clients should factor the three‑year lapse into programme risk and ensure decision pathways are robust, particularly on higher‑risk projects where determination may transfer to ministers if statutory decision periods are missed. Further procedural detail may follow in building regulations made under section 35D on the form and service of notices.