Chartered surveyor and building engineer calls on Gove to finalise developer pledge, tackle safety concerns

He has requested a meeting with Mr Gove to discuss his concerns.

In his letter, Mr Lawrence said: “I am writing to share with you the concerns I have regarding the difficulties we are facing in the industry around gaps in new regulations such as the Building Safety Act 2022. I’m sure you will agree with me that building safety and the remediation of historic defects on residential buildings in the UK is a huge ongoing problem and should be priority for the Government.”

Focusing on the developer pledge, which Mr Gove introduced in January last year, and which has yet to be agreed, Mr Lawrence said there were great concerns about the pledge and the delays to remediation.

He said: “The longer this process is delayed by ongoing disagreements over scope, the longer we experience a battle to move remediation projects forward and make Britain’s buildings safer.

“In our experience, remediation projects remain on hold pending confirmation of when or if the pledge will be signed. Pledge developers who had originally engaged with our freeholder clients on the terms and scope of remediation are now paused until the contract with government is finalised. In some circumstances, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has walked away as soon as the developer has been identified and not progressed in tandem with the Building Safety Fund.”

Last year Mr Gove’s department said the pledge “established the principle that leaseholders must be protected and that the industry responsible should pay to fix the problems it created”.

It said the developers who signed up to the pledge – currently believed to stand at 50 – had committed to remediate life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they have played a role in developing or refurbishing over the last 30 years in England.

Developers making this commitment had also agreed to reimburse any funding received from government remediation programmes in relation to buildings they had a role in developing or refurbishing. These agreements were reached following constructive discussions with developers and the Home Builders Federation and will protect leaseholders from the costs of remediation of life-critical fire safety defects.

The department noted in April last year that each developer “will be expected shortly to sign a legally binding contract reflecting these pledges and inform leaseholders in affected buildings how they will be meeting their commitments”.

Other issues Mr Lawrence raised in his letter to Mr Gove included:

• Scope of works – Mr Lawrence noted there was a “distinct lack of clarity” on whether works are required to be completed to the standards of PAS 9980:2022 (providing a method for the fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding of existing multistorey and multi-occupied residential buildings), or as mandated by Building Regulations. This had led to remediation works delays and would become an issue when obtaining a Building Assessment Certificate when further works could be necessary.
• Funding for buildings 11-18m in height – Mr Lawrence stressed the urgency required to finalise a timetable for the fund for these buildings, noting: “The industry and residents of these buildings desperately need the reassurance from the Government that these buildings are as much of a priority as those over 18m. Our estimate is that there will be over 30,000 buildings requiring works.”
• Building Safety Act – He said: “Following the announcement of Leaseholder Protections that mean it is now illegal for freeholders to pass on any costs relating to the remediation of unsafe external wall systems or historical building repair works to leaseholders except in limited circumstances. We feel there needs to be stronger clarification on when a freeholder is and is not liable for these charges. Specifically, where stated that if any building owner ‘does not have a net wealth of at least £2 million per relevant building as we feel that there is a high risk of many becoming insolvent if assigned liability to fund remediation. We believe that government should specifically assign liability to developers, rather than to freeholders who were not responsible for introducing defects into buildings and who generally lack the cash resources to remediate them. We need to stress that the Building Safety Act must transfer liability to the polluter and not the freeholder, when not responsible for construction.”
• £4.5bn Building Safety Fund - Clarity was required on the scope of the new fund, in particular, what it would and would not cover. Mr Lawrence added: “To avoid similar delays as experienced with the original £1bn fund, we would respectfully suggest all works should be covered, including windows, doors, all inner leaf works, structural works, internal and external compartmentation, and fire doors.”
• Managing agent delays - the introduction of the Landlord Certificate and the significant amount of information required (five years’ worth) for each building. Mr Lawrence said: “This, in addition to an ever-changing landscape of legislation and regulations they are being required to understand and action, is causing a drain on their resource. With only so much time available, better training and advice is needed from the Government to help managing agents cope and deal with the massive volume of work.”