This week, the Minister for Housing and Building Safety, , convened a round table of council chief executives to
discuss the action they are taking against building owners who
are failing to fix medium and high-rise buildings with known
building safety issues in their area.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has
provided over £8 million in funding to councils to boost
enforcement teams. The Minister pressed councils to explain how
this funding is being used to force rogue building owners to act.
The meeting follows successful legal action the Government,
leaseholders and councils have taken in recent months against
building owners to make sure vital safety work is carried
out. The Government is playing its part, and the Minister
stressed the vital role of councils in making sure building
owners fix their unsafe buildings.
Minister for Building Safety said:
Councils and fire and rescue services play a crucial role in
making sure dangerous buildings get fixed when building owners
are stalling. Lots of councils are already doing great work in
this area but all councils need to take the appropriate action to
protect residents and make sure those responsible for making
homes safe do so without any further delay.
The warning to owners refusing fix their buildings is clear: get
on with remediation or action will be taken against you.
Government legal action has forced Grey GR, a subsidiary of
RailPen - an organisation that has failed to remediate a
substantial number of buildings - to fix building safety issues
at Galbraith House in Birmingham within 3 weeks, despite having
known about the building safety defects for six years. The
government is taking enforcement action covering six further Grey
GR buildings with trials set to take place this year.
In addition to Grey GR, Wallace Estates, which has consistently
failed to fix building safety defects, has now accepted
remediation orders brought by the Government covering four
buildings. This provides much-needed certainty for approximately
400 leaseholders by committing the company to dates for the
completion of work.
This January the First-tier Tribunal issued a remediation
order against Wallace Estates, following an application
by leaseholders in Croydon. Wallace Estates were ordered to fix
their unsafe building by May 2025, and were criticised for not
acting fast enough to remediate defects they knew were present.
In all five orders issued under the Building Safety Act to date,
the First-tier Tribunal has ordered building owners to get on
with fixing, or paying to fix, their unsafe buildings.
Today, council leaders discussed action they are taking using
legal powers, including hearing from representatives from Newham
Council who have prosecuted a building owner for delays in
removing dangerous cladding – a significant step forward in the
fight to protect residents from unsafe cladding.
Where remediation is not progressing, building owners should
expect to face robust enforcement action from regulators –
including councils – with the full support of Government behind
them. This commitment is underlined in the
Government’s joint
statement with building safety bodies on enforcing the
remediation of fire safety defects.
