The Minister for Housing and Building Safety, Lee Rowley, has 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 Lee Rowley 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.
