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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if her Department will impose higher penalties on freeholders who do not implement fire safety works within timetables set out in court Remediation Orders.

The Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) provides that a First-tier Tribunal decision made under or in connection with section 123 (remediation orders), will be enforceable with the permission of the County Court. Proceedings will function in the same way as under orders of that Court.

The current regime is intended to provide security to the majority of leaseholders and support actions to ensure buildings are remediated. As with all policies, the Government will keep open the option of considering changes in the future.

Indeed, our Remediation Acceleration Plan sets out our plan to go further in making sure there are severe penalties for landlords that delay works on cladding issues. We intend to introduce new criminal and civil sanctions for those who fail to assess and remediate unsafe buildings within fixed timescales, backed by a further £33 million investment in 25/26 to provide local and national regulators with capacity and capability to tackle hundreds of enforcement cases a year, targeting those neglecting to quickly remediate their buildings.