Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number of UK builders or developers who are deemed financially responsible for remediating or mitigating fire safety-related defects on buildings in England.

We are taking steps to make sure that all developers pay fair share and can be held to account if they fail to do so.

On 30 January 2023, the Government published a developer remediation contract that will, once signed, commit major developers (including 49 developers that signed the developer remediation pledge) to pay for work to fix defects estimated to cost at least £2 billion. In Spring 2023, the Government will lay regulations to establish a Responsible Actors Scheme. Under those regulations, developers eligible for the Scheme will have to sign and comply with the terms of the developer remediation contract if they wish to join and remain in the Scheme. Any eligible developer that does not join and remain in the Scheme will be prohibited from commencing new major developments for which they have planning permission, and from securing building control sign-off for buildings already under construction.

In addition, the Building Safety Act 2022 placed new responsibilities on all developers to pay to fix buildings they constructed, and gave third parties avenues to seek redress in cases where a developer shirks their responsibilities.