Landlords with unsafe cladding on their buildings face fines or prison if they fail to fix them within new deadlines set out in forthcoming legislation.
The Remediation Bill would require owners of buildings of 18 metres in height and taller to make their properties safe by the end of 2029. The deadline for those between 11 and 18 metres would be the end of 2031.
The government first announced plans for the deadlines in December, but on Thursday the introduction of the legislation was confirmed.
“We are […] sending a clear message to those responsible for a building still wrapped in unsafe cladding: act now or face the consequences,” said housing secretary Angela Rayner.
Official figures published in May showed that more than half of the 5,052 buildings with dangerous cladding have yet to be remediated. Last month marked the eighth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died, including 18 children.
Under the new legislation, the government’s housing and regeneration body, Homes England, and councils would also be handed powers to remediate unsafe buildings if a landlord failed to do so.
The government is also aiming to supercharge the remediation of social housing by giving the sector the same access to public funding as private landlords.
As announced in last month’s Spending Review, housing associations and councils will gain access to £1bn in new funding to fix buildings.
It means that the government’s Cladding Safety Scheme will now fund remediation on social rented homes, affordable rented homes and shared ownership units on the same basis as leasehold units, it has been confirmed.
Funding will also be made available for cladding remediation work on buildings under 11 metres in height in “exceptional cases where no alternative viable funding route exists”, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said.
A new national remediation system that is being rolled out by Homes England will also “help regulators with up-to-date building-safety data and help hold failing landlords to account”.
The Remediation Bill will be “brought forward as soon as the parliamentary timetable allows”, the MHCLG said.
However, campaign group End Our Cladding Scandal voiced concerns about the timetable, noting “It is unclear when there will be parliamentary time.”
“As we all know, legislation will not take effect overnight,” the group added.
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James Wilmore