Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill

Abena Oppong-Asare Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

My officials will have heard that call, and I or the Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith, who is in her place, will be happy to meet my hon. Friend.

Coming back to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson) about residents paying for costly waking watch patrols, we have provided an additional £62 million for fire alarms in buildings with defects. That will keep residents safe until remediation work is completed and save leaseholders about £280 a month.

We are also taking action on insurance. We will introduce secondary legislation to do two things: strengthen transparency and bring the insurance commissions ban into force. The ban will stop people—including freeholders and property managing agents—from passing those commissions on to leaseholders. That will end the incentive for unscrupulous landlords and agents to seek out unearned profits and simply pass the cost on to innocent leaseholders.

[Ms Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her work on this. Some campaigners have raised concerns about past methods and how the Government have come to the conclusions on which they have legislated. There are concerns that legislation could be gamed by developers, making the situation much worse for residents. I would be grateful for clarification on that.

[Angela Rayner]

We are establishing a single, consistent approach to assessing external walls so that buildings are judged on the same basis. Central to that is PAS 9980, which will become the required standard for fire risk appraisals of external walls.

Before the end of the year, we will bring forward the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, which will put power back in the hands of residents and tackle unfair costs and charges. We will cap ground rents at £250 a year before reducing them to a peppercorn after 40 years, and also cap administration fees.