Campaigners criticise extra red tape in new cladding Remediation Acceleration Plan

The Government is to set out details of the new Remediation Acceleration Plan it has drawn up the in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s report.

It says the government will deliver a generational shift in the safety and quality of housing for everyone in this country.

But campaigners have criticised the continued delays in implementing a clear programme and what they maintain is yet another “layer of complexity and bureaucracy to what is already a hugely complicated process”.

There will be a general debate on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report in the House of Commons today - Monday 2nd December – when the Deputy Prime Minister is expected to release more information of its new scheme.

It will - for the first time - set clear target dates for making buildings safe and will propose to introduce significantly tougher penalties for refusing to act: 

• By the end of 2029, all 18m+ (high-rise) buildings with unsafe cladding in a government-funded scheme will have been remediated.  
• By the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or the landlords will be liable for severe penalties. 

The plan will also be backed by investment in enforcement - so that local authorities, fire and rescue authorities and the Building Safety Regulator have the capacity to tackle hundreds of cases per year.

Alongside the plan, the government will publish a joint action plan with developers to accelerate their work to fix buildings for which they are responsible. At least 29 developers, covering over 95% of the buildings which developers are remediating themselves, have committed to more than doubling the rate at which they have been assessing and starting to fix unsafe buildings, meaning work on all their buildings will start by summer 2027.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: ”More than seven years on from the Grenfell tragedy, thousands of people have been left living in homes across this country with dangerous cladding.

“The pace of remediation has been far too slow for far too long. We are taking decisive action to right this wrong and make homes safe.

“Our Remediation Acceleration Plan will ensure those responsible for making buildings safe deliver the change residents need and deserve.”

But in a statement ahead of the general debate, the End Our Cladding Scandal campaigners said: “Our understanding is that the meaningful changes we need and have been waiting for, such as revising the approach to non-qualifying leaseholders, will require primary legislation.

“Whilst we are hopeful that the imminent announcement will mitigate some of the issues we have highlighted since the Building Safety Act’s leaseholder protections came into force in June 2022, we continue to fear that the RAP will only add a further layer of complexity and bureaucracy to what is already a hugely complicated process. Further, if the focus is simply on accelerating the pace of remediation, we are concerned that the harm being caused to people is only set to increase.

“It has certainly been a strange few months since Labour came to power with a focus on building 1.5m homes during this Parliament and little communication from MHCLG on the cladding and building safety scandal that is blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the country. We had hoped that Labour would hit the ground running and we would see meaningful changes in the short-term; however, this seems less likely with each day that passes.

“Since our letter to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Building Safety in September, and our meeting with Angela Rayner in October, we have welcomed the approach being taken by the new Minister for Building Safety, Alex Norris. We are due to meet Alex on 4th December for the first of our agreed monthly meetings with him. These are to be supplemented by monthly meetings with MHCLG policy team leads where we will keep pushing for change that will actually make a difference to the current horribly complicated approach to building safety.

“The National Audit Office’s report into dangerous cladding has laid bare how long this is going to take and how much it is going to cost. The Government is not even on track to meet the target date of 2035 for completion of remediation on all unsafe buildings over 11m. The focus remains solely on cladding with buildings that access grant funding being made half-safe across the country. The previous government’s promises to make industry pay “instead of leaseholders” have come to nothing with Michael Gove blaming HM Treasury for their refusal to hold industry to account – Labour must do much more to ensure we do not see history repeating itself.

“We will keep reminding Labour of the support they gave to us in opposition and that the promises they made must be kept. We remain convinced that the only way to deal with this mess is for the Government to take control and implement Labour’s previous proposals for a Building Works Agency. The mechanisms to effect this are broadly in place and we need Labour – whether Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves – to show they have the political will to deliver a comprehensive solution for all buildings and all leaseholders and residents, the innocent victims of this crisis.

“This will need major cultural change, which is unlikely to happen quickly. As the Grenfell Phase 2 Report set out, the nightmare we are living through is the fault of successive governments and their focus on the interests of industry rather than the interests of ordinary people. We remain concerned that there are blockers in the civil service – whether MHCLG, the Home Office or HM Treasury – the same civil service that caused this mess and has played a huge part in trying to minimise the scale of this crisis since the entirely avoidable deaths at Grenfell Tower in June 2017. The same civil service that is making policy decisions at one remove from what actually happens on the ground as they focus on “changing behaviours” rather than ensuring policy measures can work effectively.

“If Labour chooses not to protect all leaseholders and not to recreate the Building Works Agency, they must say exactly why they have decided to make innocent victims of this scandal pay.

“It is over three years since we first met Michael Gove and told him what we needed to see happen urgently. Looking back at our correspondence, there may have been some steps forward but they are far from what all innocent leaseholders need and deserve. We are yet to see a sensible and joined-up approach within and outside government to waking watches, with these now starting to be imposed at buildings across the country with little care or consideration for the impact on residents of the onerous costs of a largely useless interim measure.

“We have also pushed Labour on providing government backing for buildings insurance payouts and we hoped to see an announcement on this either in their first 100 days or in the Chancellor’s October Budget; however, this has not happened yet.”

The Remediation Acceleration Plan will speed up the process of making homes safe by focusing on three key objectives:  

1. Fix buildings faster: Expedite remediation of high-risk buildings with clear deadlines and penalties for non-compliance.  
2. Identify all unsafe buildings: Identify all buildings with unsafe cladding through advanced data assessments and the creation of a comprehensive building register.  
3. Support residents: Protect residents from the financial burdens of remediation and improve their experience throughout the process.  

Building Safety Minister Alex Norris said: ”Every resident deserves to feel safe in their home. By setting a clear timeline and firm deadlines, today’s announcement is a major step towards ensuring every building is made safe.

“Our Remediation Acceleration plan will fix buildings faster, identify all buildings with unsafe cladding and support vulnerable residents.

“This underscores our unwavering commitment to safeguarding residents and holding those responsible to account. We will not hesitate to actively pursue the owners of buildings who refuse to act.”

Cllr Heather Kidd, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “Councils are committed to keeping tenants and residents safe, and are keen to work with Government to drive the pace of remediation.

“However, for local government to carry out enforcement and addressing cladding issues as effectively and quickly as possible, multi-year funding arrangements are needed.

“Councils are keen to remediate the buildings they own that have dangerous cladding, but they need access to the necessary funding to do so on the same basis they had to remediate ACM cladding.”

On the joint plan to accelerate remediation projects in self-remediation portfolios, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation (HBF) says: “Through voluntary self-remediation commitments and new taxes, the industry has committed £6bn to addressing building safety issues and significant progress is being made. This new plan sets out how the industry will continue to implement remediation works as quickly as is safely practicable. The plan underlines the UK home building industry’s absolute commitment to ensuring all buildings are safe while removing any financial burden from leaseholders, and it is also welcome recognition by government that the role of other actors, such as freeholders, product manufacturers and the government’s own regulator, is critical if we are to remediate buildings even more quickly.

“Without reasonable access to buildings provided by building owners and management companies, it is difficult to agree the scope of works and progress. Developers agreed, 18 months ago to voluntarily remediate buildings they had developed included a government commitment to introduce a dispute resolution system for cases where freeholders or management companies obstruct remediation. We welcome the government re-committing to establishing this overdue process. We also welcome the commitment to ensure the Building Safety Regulator has the capacity to deal with applications in a reasonable timeframe such that it isn’t delaying remediation or new build projects.

“Today’s announcement should mark the start of a new approach to addressing ongoing failures. While home building companies have stepped up to support remediation efforts, other sectors have receded into the background without rebuke from government. We welcome the Deputy Prime Minister’s clear commitment to pursue other sectors and actors who should, by now, have made a proper financial contribution to this national effort.”

On the Building Safety Levy, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation says: “We fully support the principle that leaseholders should not pay to remediate their buildings. UK housebuilders have today committed to accelerate the remediation of all their own buildings, plus are paying £2bn in additional Corporation Tax to pay for those built by foreign builders, local authorities and other parties. This further levy is punitive, targeting small builders many of whom have never even built apartments and poses a threat to jobs, investment and the delivery of private and affordable housing.

“This new tax was dreamt up by the previous government with political motivations to impose costs on building homes in certain parts of the country. Its need remains unproven and the implications of reducing housing supply even further have been ignored. Taxes may be rising for all businesses but the new costs for home building firms is punitive. It is disappointing that a new government with ambitious housing supply targets has followed its predecessor in arguing that it’s "too hard" to obtain contributions from the very sectors shown to have played the system and caused the building safety crisis, and instead resorted to yet another tax on home building. Its introduction will accelerate the loss of SMEs in the home building industry.”