The residents’ engagement strategy is one of the duties the regulator assesses alongside your safety case report, and it is the one most often treated as a communications exercise rather than a statutory document. It is not about newsletters. It is about which building safety decisions residents get a say in, and how you prove you took their views into account.
- Duty
- Building Safety Act 2022, Part 4 In force
- Duty holder
- The principal accountable person prepares it, maintains it and must ensure compliance with it
- Applies to
- Occupied higher-risk buildings in England
- Guidance
- Preparing a resident engagement strategy, last updated 6 December 2024
- Wales
- Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026, ss.40, 41 and 46 Not yet commenced
What the strategy must contain
| Required | What an assessor is looking for |
|---|---|
| Which building safety decisions residents will be consulted on | A specific list, not a general commitment to consult |
| What information will be provided to residents | What, when, and in what form |
| How opinions will be collected and used | The mechanism, and evidence that views actually changed something |
| Communication methods accommodating different needs | Accessible formats, languages, and residents who cannot use the default channel |
| Feedback processes | What a resident hears back, and how quickly |
| Submission timescales | How long residents have to respond |
| GDPR compliance for data handling | What personal data you hold and on what basis |
| How participation will be measured and reviewed | A measure, not an intention. This is the one most often missing |
What residents must be consulted on
Guidance is specific on one point. Residents must be asked about timing and how to minimise disruption where works will last more than one day and will block areas of the building or disrupt daily life.
Emergency repairs do not require consultation, which is the sensible carve-out. But the exemption is for emergencies, not for anything urgent, and a pattern of works classified as emergencies is the kind of thing an assessor notices.
Say what you will not consult on
This is the part most strategies omit, and it is explicitly expected. The strategy should identify which decisions residents will not be consulted on, with an explanation of why.
Stating the boundary openly is stronger than leaving it vague. A strategy that implies everything is consulted on, while in practice most things are not, creates an expectation you will fail and a gap an assessor can see.
Getting it to residents is a separate duty
The principal accountable person provides the strategy to all accountable persons. Each accountable person then distributes it to residents in the part of the building they are responsible for. Copies should accommodate different preferences, including paper, email and accessible formats.
Underneath that sits a requirement that is easy to read past and hard to satisfy: accountable persons must take all reasonable steps to know who lives in their part of the building and to understand their needs, using methods such as surveys or visits to units.
In a building with high turnover, subletting, or a significant number of leaseholders who do not live there, that is real work. It also connects directly to the emergency plan in your safety case report, which has to account for residents who would need assistance to evacuate. If you cannot show you know who lives in the building, two duties fail at once.
When it must be reviewed
- At least every two years, regardless of whether anything has changed
- Following a mandatory occurrence report to the Building Safety Regulator
- After significant material alterations to the building
Each review must be recorded, whether or not it results in changes. A review that changed nothing but was documented is compliant. A review that happened informally and was never written down is indistinguishable from no review at all.
Why this gets assessed
When the regulator directs a principal accountable person to apply for a building assessment certificate, the residents’ engagement strategy is one of the things it looks at alongside the safety case report, the mandatory occurrence reporting system, live compliance notices, and confirmation that building information is being provided.
Given that two thirds of applications assessed this year were refused, and that the stated reason was submissions addressing process compliance rather than effective safety management, a strategy that exists as a document but has never demonstrably influenced a decision is exactly the pattern being refused.
Wales does this differently
Section 40 of the Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 imposes a similar duty on the principal accountable person for an occupied category 1 building, but with three differences that matter.
- You must consult on the strategy itself. Section 40(6) requires the principal accountable person to consult relevant persons about the proposed contents of the strategy before adopting it, and to take account of representations made. England has no equivalent duty to consult on the strategy document.
- Unit owners are expressly included. Relevant persons means adult residents of the building and owners of residential units, so non-resident leaseholders are in scope by definition.
- It extends to category 2 buildings. Section 46 applies a residents’ engagement strategy duty to occupied category 2 buildings, which are below 18 metres and 7 storeys but at least 11 metres or 5 storeys.
Section 40 also defines a building safety decision precisely: a decision by an accountable person that is about the management of the building and is made in connection with performing a duty under the Act. None of Part 1 is yet in force.
Common questions
Is a residents’ association the same as an engagement strategy?
No. An association is one possible channel. The strategy is a statutory document setting out which building safety decisions residents are consulted on and how their views are obtained and used. A building with an active association can still fail the duty if none of that is documented.
What if residents do not engage?
The duty is to promote participation and to have appropriate methods, not to achieve a particular response rate. Low engagement is not itself a breach. Failing to measure participation, or never reviewing methods that plainly are not working, is closer to one, because measuring and reviewing the appropriateness of methods is part of the required content.
Does it cover leaseholders who do not live in the building?
In Wales, expressly yes: relevant persons includes owners of residential units. In England the guidance is framed around residents, so a building with many non-resident leaseholders should decide and document its own position rather than leave it ambiguous.
Can the managing agent run it?
They can operate it day to day. The duty to prepare the strategy, maintain it and ensure compliance sits with the principal accountable person, and distribution to residents sits with each accountable person for their own part of the building.