In response to the Building Safety Act, new student housing will be delayed by six months

Student housebuilder warns new building safety legislation could delay its projects.

As a result of the implementation of the Building Safety Act (BSA), Unite Students expects new student accommodation delivery schedules to be delayed by six months.

“As with any new regulation, this presents risks of delay due to capacity constraints at the Building Safety Regulator (BSR),” a company statement said.

“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.

A new set of rules and regulations came into effect under the BSA in October 2023 for contractors, manufacturers, and clients. As part of the golden thread rule, a digital record of the building must be maintained.

All residential buildings over 11 meters tall must also be funded for cladding remediation.

According to Unite Students' trading update, it is working on 13 projects and is "progressing cladding remediation".

“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.

Unite Students said earlier this year it expected to recoup up to three quarters of costs associated with remediation. As of 30 September 2024, it had claimed back £24 million from contractors, including £18 million in the three months prior.

Additionally, Unite Students voiced concerns about the completion of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) on time, stating that the supply of PBSA "remains constrained". At present, completion rates are about half what they were before the pandemic.

Despite this, it expressed a "positive outlook" for the student housing market in 2025/26 due to demographic growth.