Remediation Enforcement Unit signposted for Building Safety Regulator

On 7 February, Will Foster (Liberal Democrat MP for Woking) tabled a Parliamentary question in which he asked Angela Rayner (Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government) what steps the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government is taking to ensure the effectiveness of compliance by contractors with (and enforcement measures by) the new Building Safety Regulator with the Building Safety Act 2022 and if an assessment of the adequacy of compliance by clients and contractors will be made with the provisions of that Act.

In responding, Alex Norris (Labour MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government) stated that officials at the Building Safety Regulator are currently working with their counterparts at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to establish “a dedicated Remediation Enforcement Unit” within the Building Safety Regulator. 

The Remediation Enforcement Unit will be designed to hold owners of Aluminium Composite Material-clad buildings to account, enforcing remediation where necessary. According to Norris, this will be “essential” when it comes to meeting the Government’s priority task of remediating unsafe higher-risk buildings.

What’s more, Norris has affirmed: “We are considering further options to ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022 as part of the Government’s ongoing Spending Review.”

Poor quality applications

The Building Safety Regulator takes action to ensure that all applications for build programmes that don’t meet the regulatory standards of building safety are rejected. The introduction of the new regulatory regime initially resulted in many poor quality and incomplete applications from industry.

The Building Safety Regulator continues to support applicants to meet the functional requirements of the Building Regulations. On that point, Norris affirmed: “It’s worth noting that the requirements in the Building Regulations are not new and rejected applications contribute towards the processing time of compliant applications.”

The Building Safety Act 2022 also requires that, within five years of that Act coming into force, the Secretary of State must appoint an independent body to carry out a review process. This includes reviewing the effectiveness of the Building Safety Regulator itself and any provisions made by (or under) the Building Act 1984, such as the duty holder duties and enforcement measures.

On a logistical level, the new Remediation Enforcement Unit is expected to be operational this coming summer.

Funding mechanism

Discussions around funding for the new Remediation Enforcement Unit are being conducted by officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Building Safety Regulator.

Whatever the outcome of those discussions, it’s suggested that the Remediation Enforcement Unit will concentrate its attentions squarely on an enhanced enforcement capability relating to those structures extending to 18 metres or taller above ground level.

Remediation Enforcement Unit personnel will support local regulators on the work needed to administer, enforce and also compel named principal ‘Accountable Persons’ to remediate high-risk buildings that currently play host to combustible cladding.