If you manage residential blocks, the Building Safety Act 2022 can sound like something that only matters for “very tall buildings” or “big social landlords”.
In reality, it’s reshaping day-to-day expectations around records, accountability, resident engagement, and how fire and structural risks are managed—especially for higher-rise stock.
This is a plain-English guide to what matters most for block management teams, and what you can do to stay ahead.
1) Start with one question: is it a “higher-risk building” in occupation?
Under the occupation phase regime, a higher-risk building is (broadly) a residential building that is at least 18 metres or 7 storeys and has at least 2 residential units.
If you manage any buildings in that bracket, the building has (or should have) a different compliance rhythm than a typical low-rise block.
2) Registration: the building must be registered with the regulator
Higher-risk buildings must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). This is a cornerstone requirement before residents live there (and part of keeping the building within the new regime).
For block managers, the practical takeaway isn’t “do the registration” (that sits with duty-holders), but: know the registration status, know who is responsible, and make sure the information needed to support compliance is organised and current.
3) Understand the duty-holder roles: AP and PAP
The Act introduces Accountable Persons (APs) and a Principal Accountable Person (PAP) for occupied higher-risk buildings. In simple terms:
- APs are responsible for managing building safety risks in the parts of the building they control.
- The PAP is the clearly identifiable lead AP for the building.
Even if you’re not the duty-holder, you will often be the one coordinating the moving parts—contractors, access, resident comms, document control—so it helps to map who the AP/PAP is for each building you manage and what they expect you to deliver operationally.
4) What risks are we actually talking about?
In the higher-risk building regime, “building safety risks” have a specific meaning:
- the risk of spread of fire or smoke, and
- the risk of structural failure.
That focus helps when prioritising actions: you’re not trying to document everything, you’re trying to demonstrate that fire/smoke spread and structural risk are being understood, controlled and reviewed.
5) The “Golden Thread”: keep the right information, in a usable system
Accountable persons must keep and manage core building safety information—often referred to as the Golden Thread. Government guidance summarises the key items as:
- the health and safety file
- the safety case report
- the residents’ engagement strategy
- the mandatory occurrence reporting system
The main point for block managers: this information should be accurate, up to date, and easy to retrieve—not scattered across inboxes and contractor portals. (The Construction Leadership Council also has practical guidance on what “good” looks like.)
6) Safety Case Report and the Building Assessment Certificate
A safety case report explains the building safety risks and how they’re being managed.
The regulator can instruct the duty-holder to apply for a Building Assessment Certificate, and the safety case report forms part of what’s assessed.
You don’t need to write the report as a managing agent to be helpful—but you can make it much easier to produce by maintaining clean building information, inspection evidence, contractor documentation, and an actions tracker that actually closes items out.
A simple 30-day action plan for block managers
- Identify which of your buildings meet the higher-risk criteria.
- Confirm AP/PAP roles, responsibilities, and a single point of contact.
- Create one “building safety folder” structure (plans, certificates, logs, actions).
- Introduce a monthly building safety actions review (nothing “open-ended”).
- Make resident updates predictable: what’s been done, what’s next, and when.
How Langford Estates can help
The Building Safety Act is easiest to manage when the building is well run and well documented.
Langford Estates supports landlords and management clients by strengthening the day-to-day systems behind compliance: organised building records, consistent inspections, contractor coordination, clear reporting, and action tracking through to completion.
The result is a calmer process, fewer surprises, and better confidence that the building is being managed in line with the new expectations.
Further reading (official sources):
- Safety in high-rise residential buildings: accountable persons (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/safety-in-high-rise-residential-buildings-accountable-persons
- Keeping information about a higher-risk building (Golden Thread) (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/keeping-information-about-a-higher-risk-building-the-golden-thread
- Preparing a safety case report (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/preparing-a-safety-case-report
- Building Safety Act 2022 (Part 4) (legislation.gov.uk): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/part/4