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Thurrock Council Building Control team has extensive local knowledge of the unusually varied ground conditions in the Borough and extensive knowledge of all kinds of construction commonly in use. Our professionally qualified and experienced team is happy to:

• Give you pre-application advice and guide you through the statutory requirements. Just get in touch with us at the first stage of design so that an appointment can be made.
• Provide you with a fast and effective plan checking service.
• Give same day site inspections (if you make contact before 10am).

Building Regulations - What are they and why do we need them?

The Council is required to administer and enforce Building Regulations within Thurrock, under the 1984 Building Act. Building Regulations provide for the health, safety, welfare and convenience of people in and about buildings. They recommend minimum standards in structural stability, fire safety, damp-proofing, sound insulation, stairs ramps and guards, ventilation, drainage, energy conservation, access to and use of buildings, glazing, heat producing appliances and electrical safety. The Regulations generally apply to new, extended and altered buildings whether they are residential, commercial or industrial. Building Regulations deal with:

• Definitions of what constitutes building work.
• What type of buildings are exempt from control under the Building Regulations.
• The notification procedures to follow when starting, carrying out and completing building work.
• The 'requirements' with which individual aspects of building design and construction must comply in the interests of health and safety of building users, energy conservation and access and facilities for disabled people.
• The 'requirements' are contained in schedule 1 to the Building Regulations and are grouped in sections dealing with different aspects of building design and construction including structural matters, fire safety, sound insulation and access and facilities for disabled people.
• The 'requirements' are the broad objectives or functions of which the individual aspects of the building design and construction must set out to achieve. They are often referred to as 'functional requirements' and are expressed as what is 'reasonable','adequate' or 'appropriate'. Not all the functional requirements may be relevant to your building work.

Practical guidance on ways to comply with the functional requirements of the Building Regulations are contained in a series of Approved Documents. There is an Approved Document for each section of schedule 1 of the Building Regulations.

Each document contains:

• General guidance on the performance expected of materials and building work in order to comply with each of the requirements, and
• Practical examples and solutions on how to achieve compliance for some of the more common building situations.

The Approved Documents are available to view on the Planning Portal (Building Regulations) website (external link).

Applying for permission

If you propose to carry out building work which is subject to the Building Regulations, you can make a Full Plans submission, or (subject to some restrictions) deposit a Building Notice.

• Full Plans Application Forms
• Building Notice Application Forms

If you have previously carried out building work which is subject to the Building Regulations, without submitting a full plans application or building notice, you can apply for a Regularisation Certificate, if the work was carried out after 11th November 1985.

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