New legislation will set strict deadlines for fixing thousands of buildings with unsafe cladding, with new powers enabling the government to step in if landlords fail to act. The remediation plan will be backed by over £1 billion in new investment, the government has said.
The Remediation Bill will require landlords of buildings 18 metres or more in height with unsafe cladding to complete remediation by the end of 2029, with landlords of buildings 11-18 metres in height given until the end of 2031.
Those who fail to comply could face unlimited fines or imprisonment. New legislation will also give named bodies, such as Homes England and local authorities, powers to remediate buildings with unsafe cladding if the landlord fails to do so.
A key element of the plan – the second phase of the Remediation Acceleration Plan – will see the government invest over £1 billion to give social landlords equal access to government funding schemes as private building owners. Cladding Safety Scheme guidance has been changed with immediate effect to implement the policy.
The campaign group End Our Cladding Scandal welcomed the move to give social landlords equal access, but said ‘many questions remain’ after the announcement.
‘It is disappointing that there remains nothing for non-qualifying leaseholders and nothing on how non-cladding defects will be fixed quickly – so that buildings are made fully safe in all funding schemes and more widely’, the group said in a statement.
“Promises to mitigate the harm caused by these longstanding issues have yet to be kept. We are still no closer to an end to the buildings insurance extortion suffered by innocent leaseholders for years, with Labour choosing to collect yet more data rather than intervene and hold the insurance industry to account. Even where flats have been remediated, these costs continue to impact service charges dramatically and prevent lending. A state-backed insurance scheme is long overdue.
“It is unclear when there will be parliamentary time for the Remediation Bill and, as we all know, legislation will not take effect overnight. Changing behaviours also takes time. Eight years after Grenfell, with hundreds of thousands still trapped across the country, this is time none of us have.”
However, building safety and fire minister Alex Norris said the government has ‘made strong progress’ and the update would speed up remediation. He added:
“There is now a clear pathway to remediate every building with unsafe cladding. We expect everyone to play their part in giving residents and leaseholders the peace of mind that they deserve.”
Deputy prime minster and housing secretary Angela Rayner said the plans send ‘a clear message’ to those responsible for buildings bearing unsafe cladding: ‘act now or face the consequences’.
“Our Remediation Bill will include a new duty on you to make your building safe by a specified date, and new powers to impose serious penalties on those who fail to comply with the duty, and ultimately to bypass them if necessary to make the building safe.”
Additional help has also been announced for leaseholders, including long-term support to help replace Waking Watch measures and protect leaseholders from costly interim safety measures. Government funding will also be made available to support fire safety cladding remediation works on buildings under 11 metres, in exceptional cases where no alternative viable funding route exists.
The government has also recently laid regulations for the Building Safety Levy, delivering on a key commitment from the initial Remediation Acceleration Plan. The levy is expected to raise £3.4 billion over the next decade to help fund remediation and will come into force from October 2026.
To maintain the viability of housing delivery, the levy has exemptions for affordable housing, supported housing and for development of fewer than ten dwellings as well as a discount for previously developed land.
Through Local Remediation Acceleration Plans, Mayoral Strategic Authorities will work closely with regulators and draw on local expertise to drive progress in their areas. The locally tailored plans will address unsafe buildings more effectively and ensure residents feel safe in their homes.
A new National Remediation system, now being rolled out by Homes England, will also support regulators with up-to date building safety data and help hold failing landlords to account.
Since publication of the Remediation Action Plan in December 2024, the government says 24,000 more residents are living in homes that have been remediated.
However, the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign said there must be ‘an unrelenting focus’ on delivery, with a clear timelines and understanding of when unsafe or potentially unsafe buildings will be safe, regardless of funding schemes.
The group said:
“The new National Remediation System should ensure that all regulators will finally operate from a single version of the truth dataset, but what oversight and enforcement will look like on the ground is still unclear. The current approach to enforcement must also change, so people do not end up homeless and paying the price for developers’ or freeholders’ failure to fix their building.
“We urgently need strong central leadership and a firm grip. The Government must take control – not only by focusing on fixing individual buildings, but also by expanding its approach to hold freeholders, housing associations, developers, and contractors accountable at group level. The proposed Duty to Remediate and Backstop powers must be more than a vague threat of action at some distant point in the future.
“This update includes some positive steps but is still nowhere near enough to meet Labour’s manifesto commitments on building safety. We still need a huge leap forward, or leaseholders and residents will continue to bear the financial and emotional cost of a crisis they did not cause.”
