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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) resources and (b) powers of the Building Safety Regulator to complete remediation of high rise buildings in England promptly.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has powers set out within the Building Safety Act 2022 to facilitate building safety in higher-risk buildings (7 storeys or 18m+) as the government authority on building safety and standards. Since March 2024, all higher-risk buildings require a safety case report setting out how a building's safety risks are managed, which helps to identify remediation work that needs to be undertaken. If the BSR is satisfied that the risks are being managed to the defined standards, they will issue a Building Assessment Certificate (BAC). There is regular, established governance in place to ensure BSR is discharging its duties and MHCLG continue to review such arrangements to ensure they are fit for purpose.

MHCLG continue to assess BSR funding through the ongoing Spending Review, to ensure that the most significant changes to building safety in a generation can be delivered on the ground.

Accelerating the pace of remediation remains a key priority for this government. The department has developed new Remediation Enforcement Guidance for Regulators, due to be published in the coming weeks. The purpose of this guidance is to support and empower regulators, including the BSR, to carry out more regulatory work and to ensure that building owners fulfil their duties to fix their unsafe buildings.