Video transcript: Chair of the Health and Safety Executive, Sarah Newton’s vlog

Hello everyone. I’m Sarah Newton, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive.
Today, I want to talk about the important role of the new watchdog for building safety in England, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), which is part of the Health and Safety Executive. The BSR’s job is to regulate high-rise residential buildings across England, which are known as HRBs.

Residents are at the heart of the BSR’s work. We believe people should be safe and feel safe in their homes. For too long, people in tower blocks have faced threats from fire and structural safety issues in their buildings. But now, change is on the horizon, with the ground-breaking building safety reforms introduced by the Government. These reforms have ushered in a new era of rights for residents in high-rise buildings across England. These rights make sure their voices are heard loud and clear. They provide residents in HRBs with a greater say in fire and structural safety impacting their buildings and communities, holding building owners and managers accountable for these safety measures.

To ensure residents are informed and empowered by their new rights, BSR has launched the ‘Your home, your safety’ campaign. Our campaign aims to help residents living in tall buildings to understand BSR’s role and find out more about their increased rights and protections. We want them to have peace of mind that fire and structural safety risks in their buildings are being effectively addressed.

These new rights are a real game-changer for residents. Residents living in tower blocks will have a stronger say in safety decisions which affect their buildings. They will have access to ongoing clear and accessible information regarding safety matters – and most importantly, be empowered to voice safety concerns. They can also have confidence that their concerns will be acted on. We want residents living in these tall buildings to know that BSR will make sure the people responsible for keeping their building safe are managing safety risks. They can be reassured that BSR will take action if these duty holders fail to carry out their legal responsibilities.

This is why we’ve launched the ‘Your Home, your Safety’ campaign – because we want people living in high-rise buildings across England to be reassured that the new building safety watchdog is there for them. You might have already seen our campaign messaging across social and digital platforms in recent weeks or our eye-catching advertisements on billboards in town centres and at bus stops.
I encourage residents and those supporting vulnerable residents to visit our ‘Making Buildings Safer’ website and subscribe to our free ‘Your home, your safety’ newsletter.

Finally, I urge all residents to use their new rights – and actively participate in safety decisions within their buildings. Please make the most of the processes available to you to have your voice heard.