Government funding boost for building safety inspector training

The UK Government has announced a £70 million funding package aimed at addressing critical shortages in building safety professionals, with a particular focus on roles required to deliver high-rise residential developments.

The three-year programme is designed to increase capacity in building control and fire engineering, supporting the delivery of new homes while strengthening oversight of High-Risk Buildings (HRBs), including many Build-to-Rent (BTR) and purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) schemes.

The funding will support the training of up to 700 new Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs), including those qualified to assess high-risk buildings under the Class 3H designation. It will also fund the upskilling of existing inspectors to meet the more stringent requirements introduced under the current building safety regime.

A further element of the programme will focus on expanding the fire engineering workforce, including funding for postgraduate bursaries, higher education provision and academic research capacity.

The Government said the initiative is intended to address workforce constraints that are currently limiting development activity, particularly for complex, high-rise residential schemes requiring regulatory approval under the Building Safety Regulator framework.

Shortages in both building control and fire engineering have been widely cited by the industry as a key bottleneck in the delivery of new housing, with the issue also highlighted in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and subsequent reviews of the building safety system.

The funding is split between £55 million for building control and £15 million for fire engineering, with local authorities expected to play a central role in recruiting and training new inspectors.

For developers and contractors, the expansion of the safety workforce is expected to improve the speed and certainty of approvals for high-risk buildings, which have been subject to increased scrutiny and extended timelines since the introduction of the new regulatory regime.

The measures form part of a broader government strategy to accelerate housing delivery while ensuring compliance with strengthened safety standards, particularly in the delivery of high-density urban schemes.