Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) future costs incurred by cladding remedial work are not passed onto leaseholders and (b) freeholders meet their legal responsibilities to fund remedial work as stipulated in the Building Safety Act 2022.

Last year 49 of the largest housebuilders signed a public pledge committing to fix life-critical fire safety defects in residential buildings 11 metres or more in height which they developed or refurbished in England over the last 30 years. 48 developers have since signed the developer remediation contract giving legal effect to those commitments. Where a developer cannot be identified, traced or held responsible for remediating the building, or has not yet agreed to pay for their own buildings, the Building Safety Fund is available to ensure that eligible buildings over 18 metres are made safe. The Government has also launched a new scheme to provide funding for the remediation or mitigation of the fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects on medium-rise buildings (11-18 metres) where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced or held responsible.

The Building Safety Act protects leaseholders from costs associated with remediating historical building safety defects by capping or preventing altogether the costs that can be recovered through the service charge. Where work is not funded by a responsible developer or grant, the Act makes clear that any remediation costs which the Act prevents being passed on to leaseholders must be met by building owners. Any building owners who refuse to meet costs for which they are now liable under the Act are acting unlawfully.

The Act grants new enforcement powers to regulatory bodies, the Secretary of State, and leaseholders, allowing them to compel building owners to fix, and pay to fix, unsafe buildings for which they are responsible. Enforcement action will be taken against those who are holding up remediation works, where appropriate.