Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of its arms-length bodies are (i) investigating and (ii) undertaking enforcement action against Rockwell (FC100) Ltd in relation to its residential building remediation obligations.

The Department is not actively investigating or taking enforcement action against Rockwell (FC100), nor to our knowledge are any of the Department’s arm’s length bodies.

The Government is working with local authorities and fire and rescue services to take enforcement action against building owners who are failing to get on with remediation.

Regulators are operationally independent and are subject to their own duties and regulatory regimes. As such it would be inappropriate for the department to comment on regulatory decision making.

Where remediation is not progressing, local authorities and fire and rescue services have a range of tools to compel building owners to fix their unsafe buildings.

Regulators have long-standing powers under the Housing Act 2004 and Fire Safety Order 2005 to make sure building owners fix their unsafe buildings.

The Building Safety Act 2022 bolstered these powers by introducing remediation orders and remediation contribution orders. These powers allow regulators to apply to the First-tier Tribunal for an order that requires a building owner to fix, or pay to fix, unsafe buildings. In addition, the Fire Safety Order has been strengthened through changes to Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022.

Section 116 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 makes it clear that a Remediation Contribution Order, under section 124 of the Building Safety Act, can include associated costs of alternative accommodation when residents are decanted from relevant buildings on building safety grounds. There is also provision for local authorities to apply to the Courts, to recover their costs if they pay to rehouse residents in these circumstances.