The Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill proposes a new register of occupied medium rise residential buildings in England. In our first blog, we considered which buildings may be caught and who is likely to be responsible. This blog looks at what registration may involve and how owners and managers can prepare.
What will registration involve?
Further regulations will set out the detailed requirements for registration, but at this stage we expect that the registration duty holder will be required to:
• Register the building
• Provide key information about the building, likely to include its height, number of floors and residential units and date of completion
• Update that information where required
• Pay the applicable registration charge
The charge will be set by secondary legislation. The Government expects it to be similar to the current £251 charge for registering a higher-risk building.
When will the requirements apply?
The Bill does not provide a firm timetable. It was introduced in the House of Commons on 14 October 2026 and remains subject to the parliamentary process. However, the second reading of the Bill on 27 October 2026 indicated that the Government is keen to progress swiftly, with a commitment to conclude proceedings in the Public Bill Committee by 8 December 2026.
If enacted, further regulations will be needed before the register becomes operational and the Government has suggested this may take eight to ten months from the date the Bill becomes legislation. These regulations will likely set an initial registration deadline for registration duty holders to comply with.
What are the consequences of non-compliance?
The proposed regime includes civil and criminal sanctions. The Government summarises these as:
• A civil penalty of up to £7,000 for failing to register, provide required information or update information
• A financial penalty of up to £40,000, or prosecution, where non-compliance continues
• Prosecution where false or misleading information is provided knowingly or recklessly. The guidance states that a conviction for the false or misleading information offence may also result in an unlimited fine or, where applicable, a custodial sentence.
The proposed enforcement approach differs from the existing higher-risk building regime, under which allowing an unregistered higher-risk building to be occupied is itself a criminal offence. The proposed medium rise regime therefore introduces a more graduated approach, beginning with civil penalties but enabling escalation for continued non-compliance.
How can owners and managers prepare?
Registration is likely to require substantial preparatory work, particularly for organisations with large or diverse portfolios. Given that the timelines are still unknown and it could be a tight turn around time for registration, we would recommend that owners and managers should begin considering:
• Which buildings may fall within the statutory definition
• Whether those buildings are occupied for the purposes of the regime
• Who is likely to be the registration duty holder
• Where the information required for registration is currently held
For those with large portfolios, compiling a complete list of buildings that are likely to be impacted by the new regime and setting up folders to store the relevant information will ensure a much swifter registration process when required. This is particularly important where a building’s height or number of storeys is not straightforward to establish and may require professional surveys to be undertaken—for example, where it is built on sloping ground, comprises several connected sections of different heights, includes mezzanines or lower-ground floors, or has rooftop plant or a roof garden. As previous Mills & Reeve blogs have highlighted, the measurement rules can be technically complex, including questions about where ground level begins and which rooftop structures should be disregarded.
How does registration fit within the wider Bill?
Registration is only one part of the proposed legislation and will not determine whether remediation is required. Part 1 of the Bill sets out separate duties to assess, mitigate and remediate external wall fire safety risks.
Our upcoming blogs will explore those duties and their practical implications.
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