Credit: iStock – Victor Huang
An On the wire story
The government has introduced a bill to Parliament that would sharpen England’s response to unsafe cladding, placing a clearer legal duty on those responsible for building safety and giving regulators tougher powers to force progress.
The measure is designed to speed up the identification and repair of buildings with dangerous external wall systems, with ministers saying the aim is to ensure residents are not left waiting indefinitely for remediation.
Under the proposals, freeholders and other responsible parties would be legally required to identify, assess and remedy defects without delay. Those who obstruct the work could face criminal penalties, while failure to comply with a Remediation Order could bring financial sanctions of up to £500,000 through the First-tier Tribunal.
According to government guidance on the bill, the reforms are intended to push remediation forward and make sure those who caused or enabled unsafe conditions contribute to the cost of putting them right.
The legislation also creates a more structured framework for identifying which buildings need work. A new register of medium-rise residential buildings in England would help prevent properties from being overlooked, while fire risk appraisals of external walls would have to follow a consistent methodology.
Where remedial work is recommended, responsible entities would need to share a plan with residents setting out the steps and timetable for completion. The bill would also set a 12-month deadline for assessments once the law comes into force, according to the Chartered Institute of Housing.
The bill includes a backstop allowing bodies such as Homes England or local authorities to step in and carry out repairs if responsible parties repeatedly refuse to do so. If a building has no effective owner, leaseholders would also be given clearer routes to take control of management so essential works can continue.
For developers and contractors who have already paid to make buildings safe, the reforms would simplify efforts to recover costs from cladding manufacturers where products are shown to have contributed to the risk.
Building Safety Minister Baroness Blake said: ‘It’s unacceptable that so many people have been left living in homes with dangerous cladding, anxiously waiting for those responsible to take action.’
She added that the bill was ‘a milestone’ in the government’s effort to address the problem and that it would give residents a route to remediation while ensuring regulators had the powers they needed.
Homes England chief executive Amy Rees said the measures were ‘an important step’ towards accelerating remediation and strengthening accountability, while the Building Safety Regulator’s acting chief executive Charlie Pugsley said the regulator was working with stakeholders to help building owners fix known issues more quickly.
The bill comes nearly nine years after the Grenfell Tower fire and at a time when large numbers of residents still face uncertainty over the safety and marketability of their homes.
Industry figures quoted by the Fire Industry Association say the government’s earlier Remediation Acceleration Plan has already helped more than 470 additional buildings complete cladding remediation, benefiting about 35,000 residents.
Officials say the new law is intended to build on that progress, with the government expecting around 12,000 residents to see remediation accelerated, including about 3,000 whose buildings benefit from the backstop and might otherwise have remained untouched.
References
Main reference: [1]
• This On the wire article was created using Noahwire AI and reviewed by CIBSE Journal’s editorial team
