The Secretary of State Michael Gove made a statement to the
House of Commons on 10 January setting out the Department of
Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) new approach to
building safety and has written to ARCH regarding his recent
announcement and the implications for the social housing
sector.
Following pressure from leaseholders affected by the costs of
the cladding crisis, in his statement the Secretary of State reset
government's approach to building safety with plans to protect
leaseholders and make the industry and those companies to blame pay
for remediation of dangerous cladding. The measures include:
- Opening the next phase of the Building Safety Fund to speed up
taking dangerous cladding off high-rise buildings, prioritising the
government's £5.1 billion funding on the highest risk;
- Those at fault will be held properly to account: a new team is
being established to pursue and expose companies at fault, making
them fix the buildings they built and face commercial consequences
if they refuse
- Restoring common sense to building assessments: indemnifying
building assessors from being sued; and withdrawing the old,
misinterpreted government advice that prompted too many buildings
being declared as unsafe; and
- New protections for leaseholders living in their own flats:
with no bills for fixing cladding and new statutory protections for
leaseholders within the Building Safety Bill
The Secretary of State also issued a press notice on the
government's expectation of developers alongside an open letter to
the residential property developer industry in which the Secretary
of State asks companies to agree to:
- make financial contributions to a dedicated fund to cover the
full outstanding cost to remediate unsafe cladding on 11-18 metre
buildings, currently estimated to be £4 billion
- fund and undertake all necessary remediation of buildings over
11 metres that they have played a role in developing
- provide comprehensive information on all buildings over 11
metres which have historic safety defects and which they have
played a part in constructing in the last 30 years
In writing to the development industry, he gave them a deadline
of early March to agree a fully funded plan of action including
remediating unsafe cladding on 11-18 metre buildings, currently
estimated to be £4 billion. In the letter, he warns he will
take all steps necessary to make this happen, including restricting
access to government funding and future procurements, the use of
planning powers and the pursuit of companies through the courts. He
adds that if industry fails to take responsibility, the government
will, if necessary, impose a solution in law.
On the 11 January the Secretary of State wrote a letter to
ARCH to draw attention to the statement made in the
House of Commons about the Government's renewed approach to
building safety setting out the key elements of his statement in
more detail and what this will mean for the social sector in
particular.
In his letter, the Secretary of State says he
wants to "work closely with the sector over the coming months
on how we can increase social housing in this country, and improve
the quality of existing homes" which we welcome and goes on to say
he is conscious that the Government needs to ensure that these
objectives are protected as work progresses to fix the scandal of
leaseholders being asked to pay to fix building safety defects that
are the fault of developers and cladding companies.
The Secretary of State says that whilst he
recognises that our member councils need to follow the professional
judgement of building assessors, judgements should be made on a
proportionate basis in future and members have an important role to
play in challenging decisions that appear to require expensive
remediation to be undertaken in circumstances where it is not
strictly necessary.
In his letter he also confirms that the
Government will bring forward measures to fulfil commitments made
in the Social Housing White Paper, "as soon as parliamentary time
allows", as well as legislating to deliver the recommendations of
the Hackitt Review on building safety through the Building Safety
Bill and the awaited commencement of the Fire Safety
Act.
The ARCH Executive Bord will be considering its response to the
Secretary of State at its meeting on the 24 January and we would
welcome views and comments from ARCH member councils to be sent to
john.bibby@arch-housing.org.uk.