A leading student housebuilder has warned its projects could be delayed by the new building safety legislation.
Unite Students said the roll-out of the Building Safety Act (BSA) has an “expected impact” of a six-month delay to delivery timetables for new student accommodation.
“As with any new regulation, this presents risks of delay due to capacity constraints at the Building Safety Regulator (BSR),” it said in a trading update released today (8 October).
“We will continue to work closely with the BSR to deliver safe and secure homes for students in line with our target delivery timetable,” it added.
The BSA came into force in October 2023, putting new demands on contractors, product manufacturers and clients. For example, they all need to follow the golden thread rule, which involves compiling a digitised record of the building.
Developers also need to put aside funding to deal with cladding remediation on all residential buildings over 11 metres high.
In the trading update, Unite Students said it was “progressing cladding remediation” and is currently working on 13 projects.
“We continue to prioritise projects based on our external risk assessments and, having completed detailed surveys, expect to undertake works on 12 further properties in 2025,” it added.
Earlier this year Unite Students said it expected to recoup up to three quarters of the money it will spend on remediation works from contractors. In the year to 30 September 2024 it claimed back £24m from contractors, including an £18m claim that it made in the three months to 30 September 2024.
Unite Students also laid bare concerns around completing purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) on time, warning that the supply of PBSA “remains constrained”. Currently, completion rates are around half of their pre-pandemic levels, it said.
But it said it had a “positive outlook” for 2025/26, as demographic growth has led to strong demand for student housing.
