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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that developers (a) sign building repairs safety pledges and (b) commit to remediate fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres.

Further to the answer given in response to Question UIN82386, 49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing, as of 15 November 2022. We have published the names of the developers who have signed the pledge on gov.uk.

We are also in ongoing discussions with several developers who have not yet signed the pledge, and we will invite them to sign the finalised contract. We have made clear that developers that fail to do the right thing face significant consequences. In August 2022, we made commencement regulations that are an important step towards giving Ministers powers to stop developers that fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission, and from being granted building control sign-off. The Government expects all developers to do the right thing, irrespective of whether they have signed the building safety repairs pledge.