Back in 2015, the Department for Communities and Local Government (now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) in a letter to local authorities, building control teams, inspectors and fire authorities described that in its opinion “the commencement of work would usually be marked by work such as:
Just as crucially, the letter went to describe work “not likely to constitute the commencement of work” which listed:
The letter went on to describe sites that contain a number of buildings, noting that “the commencement of work on the first of the buildings within the application…determines whether all the building work can take advantage of the transitional provisions, not each individual building.”
The next transitional provisions period will relate to changes to Approved Document B and fire safety.
The changes take effect on 26 November 2020 for use in England.
The 2019 edition will continue to apply where a building notice or an initial notice has been given to, or full plans deposited with, a local authority before 26 November 2020 and either the building work to which it relates has started before that day, or is started before 29 January 2021.
The changes focus on the following fire safety provisions in blocks of flats:
More on the amendments to Approved Document B can be found here.