Flats: Fire Prevention
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help ensure that developers provide structural remediation works to ensure that buildings are safe for residents.
Answered by Alex Norris
Building owners are responsible for managing building safety and performance issues in their building, including any structural issues. Under the Building Safety Act 2022, Principal Accountable Persons for higher risk buildings (buildings with 7 or more storeys, or which are 18m or more in height with 2+ residential units) are responsible for assessing, reviewing, and taking all reasonable steps to prevent structural risks identified in their building from materialising to keep residents safe.
The Building Safety Act 2022 also protects qualifying leaseholders from unreasonable costs of remediating historical safety defects, including structural defects, and makes it possible for building owners to apply to recover some or all of the cost of remediation from the third parties who were responsible for relevant defects.
In addition, developers who signed the developer remediation contract have committed to undertake or pay for an estimated £3.9 billion worth of remedial works to address life-critical fire safety defects arising from the design and construction of buildings 11 metres and over in height that they developed, or refurbished in England in the 30 years ending on 4 April 2022. We publish quarterly updates on the progress that developers are making. Any developer who fails to comply with their obligations faces significant consequences.
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