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MPs call for contractors to share cost of fixing unsafe buildings
Neil Gerrard Associate editor
Workers remove aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding
The chair of an influential group of MPs has called on the government to make contractors and subcontractors who played a role in the building safety crisis pay for the remediation of unsafe buildings.
The comments from Clive Betts came as the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee, which he chairs, released a new report into building safety.
The Committee’s Building Safety: Remediation and Funding report responds to plans outlined by housing secretary Michael Gove to make developers share the cost of the remediation of buildings.
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But the Committee made a series of recommendations demanding further action, including:
A Comprehensive Building Safety Fund to cover the costs of remediating all building safety defects on buildings of any height where the original ‘polluter’ cannot be traced;
Require ‘all relevant parties’ who played a role in the building safety crisis to contribute to funds for remediation;
Scrap the proposed cap on non-cladding costs for leaseholders;
Compensate leaseholders for costs already paid out, including for interim measures and for rises in insurance premiums.
The report also recommended that it should be the Building Safety Regulator and not building owners that decides whether a building needs a fire risk assessment.
Commenting on the report, Betts said: “Leaseholders should not be paying a penny to rectify faults not of their doing in order to make their homes safe. Nearly five years after the tragic Grenfell fire, it is shameful this situation is yet to be properly resolved. While we welcome Michael Gove’s commitment to fixing these issues, we are concerned there are gaps in the secretary of state’s proposals which risk leaving leaseholders to pick up the bill.
“Leaseholders are no more to blame for non-cladding defects than they are for faulty cladding on homes they bought in good faith. The government should bring forward a Comprehensive Building Safety Fund, or upgrade their existing funding plans, to ensure that the costs of remediating all building safety defects on buildings where the original ‘polluter’ cannot be traced are covered and that leaseholders are also compensated for costs they have already paid out.
“The government should be looking beyond developers and manufacturers to contribute to the costs of fixing the building safety crisis. We recommend the government identify all relevant parties who played a role in this crisis, such as product suppliers, installers, contractors and subcontractors, and legally require them to pay towards fixing individual faults and ensure that they also contribute to collective funding for building safety remediation. Insurers should also be required to contribute to funds for remediation.”
The November/December 2025 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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