Building Safety Bill: initial NHF response

The long-awaited Building Safety Bill, published on Monday 5 July, sets out the legislation for the new building safety regulatory regime to ensure the safety of people and their homes. The Bill introduces significant changes to building safety regulation, as recommended by Dame Judith Hackitt in her Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, and introduces the new Building Safety Regulator to oversee the new safety regime. 

Responding to the publication of the Bill, Victoria Moffett, Head of Building and Fire Safety Programmes at the National Housing Federation said:  

“We welcome the publication of the Bill as an important milestone. It is the next step in overhauling the building safety regulatory system to make sure a tragedy like the fire at Grenfell Tower never happens again.   

“It’s positive to see the government acknowledge today that private developers are ultimately responsible for the poor workmanship which has led to so many safety issues. And, that these developers should therefore cover the costs of the work, rather than homeowners or those in social housing.   

“But many questions remain about what will happen in practice.  

“Giving leaseholders longer to pursue private developers for compensation could help some people, but unfortunately not everyone who is struggling to pay enormous building safety bills. There was also no announcement about other financial support for leaseholders today.  

“The government has rightfully made it a legal requirement for building owners to pursue all other options before passing any building safety costs on to leaseholders. Not-for-profit housing associations have already been doing this but we are concerned to hear of cases where they have not been successful and housing associations will have no other choice but to still pass on costs to homeowners or shared owners in their buildings.   

“There was also no funding for housing associations remediating social housing announced today. Charitable housing associations have so far been unable to access existing government funds. They are already diverting billions of pounds away from the upkeep of their social homes and away from building new social housing in order to make safe homes they bought in good faith.  

“If the government want to avoid bills being passed on to homeowners and fewer affordable homes getting built over the next decade, they will need to cover all building safety costs upfront and claim the costs back later from the companies they acknowledge are responsible – such as private developers.”  

We will continue to set out the case for funding for social housing providers to the government, MPs and key stakeholders. Our Policy team is examining the Bill, in particular what it means for housing associations, and we will be publishing a full briefing for our members in the coming weeks.

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