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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to review provisions within the Building Safety Act 2022 on removing the leasehold protection provisions for shared ownership leaseholders who staircase to 100% ownership and lose the statutory protections provided in their original lease.

The Building Safety Act ensures that those who built defective buildings take responsibility for remedying them, that the industry contributes to fixing the problem, and that leaseholders are protected in law from crippling bills for historical safety defects. These leaseholder protections came into force on 28 June 2022, with new financial protections for leaseholders in relevant buildings with relevant historical safety defects.

Schedule 8, paragraph 6(5) of the Building Safety Act provides that any contributions required towards remediation costs are capped according to the share of the lease the leaseholder owned at the time the lease became qualified for the protections. This position does not change should a shared owner later increase their share by staircasing, including up to 100%. Further information on this can be found in the explanatory notes on the legislation, starting with note 1731: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/notes/division/18/index.htm.