The government claims that thousands of buildings with unsafe cladding are set to be fixed faster thanks to new legislation and over £1 billion of extra investment.
A so-called Remediation Acceleration Plan has secured the backing of housing associations and local authorities committing to accelerate work to assess and fix social housing buildings, and to improve support to social tenants before, during and after remedial works.
A new Remediation Bill is also being brought forward to Parliament in the autumn to make sure that social landlords are held to account for fixing unsafe cladding and to tackle the slow pace of action across the sector.
The legislation will require landlords of buildings 18m or more in height with unsafe cladding to complete remediation by the end of 2029, and landlords of buildings 11-18m in height to complete remediation by the end of 2031.
A statement from the Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner, who is also Housing Secretary – says that those who fail to comply without reasonable excuse could face unlimited fines or imprisonment. New legislation will also give named bodies, such as Homes England and local authorities, powers to remediate buildings with unsafe cladding if the landlord fails to do so.
Rayner says: “We are … sending a clear message to those responsible for a building still wrapped in unsafe cladding: act now or face the consequences. Our Remediation Bill will include a new duty on you to make your building safe by a specified date, and new powers to impose serious penalties on those who fail to comply with the duty, and ultimately to bypass them if necessary to make the building safe.”
Additional support has also been announced for leaseholders, including long-term support to help replace Waking Watch measures and shield leaseholders from costly interim safety measures.
For the first time, government funding will also be made available to support fire-safety cladding remediation works on buildings under 11 metres, in exceptional cases where no alternative viable funding route exists.
The government has also recently laid regulations for the Building Safety Levy, delivering on a key commitment from the initial Remediation Acceleration Plan. The levy is expected to raise £3.4 billion over the next decade to help fund remediation and will come into force from October 2026.
To maintain the viability of housing delivery, the levy has exemptions for affordable housing, supported housing and for development of fewer than ten dwellings as well as a discount for previously developed land.
This article is taken from Landlord Today