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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential of legal challenges to the Government’s proposals to blacklist developers who do not sign up to his Department's building safety remediation contract.

In the Building Safety Act 2022, Parliament created a power for the Secretary of State to set up building industry schemes such as the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) to secure the safety of people in or about buildings in relation to risks arising from buildings and to improve the standard of buildings, and to place prohibitions on persons who do not join the scheme. The Government will lay regulations to implement such a scheme and prohibitions this Spring. Eligible developers that fail to sign the developer remediation contract and comply with its terms will no longer be able to carry out major development or to secure building control sign-off for buildings under construction.

Parliament clearly set out its intent in the Act, and regulations to give the scheme effect will also be scrutinised by Parliament in the usual way. Neither the scheme nor the prohibitions are to 'blacklist' developers. They will hold eligible developers to account for remediating unsafe buildings which they developed or refurbished.