Minister for housing and building safety, Lee Rowley, met with council chief executives to discuss the action taken against rogue building owners
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided over £8m in funding to councils to boost enforcement teams to tackle rogue building owners.
In the meeting, the minister pressed councils to explain how the funding is being used. Government legal action against freeholders under the Building Safety Act to date will affect 915 residential dwellings and approximately 2,160 leaseholders.
Tackling rogue building owners is the latest step in post-Grenfell building control
Through regulations introduced in the Building Safety Act, councils have greater powers to drive medium and high-rise buildings with known building safety and specifically fire safety issues.
Since 2018 alone, councils have taken enforcement action at nearly 300 high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding.
However, the latest building safety remediation release shows that of 3,839 buildings 11 metres and over in height with unsafe cladding that are being monitored by DLUHC, 2,231 buildings (58%) have not yet started remediation.
Out of a further 2,237 buildings newly identified after December 2022 to be at risk, 46% (1029) are yet to undergo remediation works.
Minister for building safety Lee Rowley said:
“Councils and fire and rescue services play a crucial role in making sure dangerous buildings get fixed when building owners are stalling. Lots of councils are already doing great work in this area but all councils need to take the appropriate action to protect residents and make sure those responsible for making homes safe do so without any further delay.
“The warning to owners refusing fix their buildings is clear: get on with remediation or action will be taken against you.”
The attending councils, which had recieved £2.8m funding between them, discussed actions taken against rogue building owners. Representatives from Newham Council spoke about their experience as the first council to prosecute, taking action against Chaplair Ltd after it failed to meet a deadline to remove dangerous cladding from its Lumiere building at 544 Romford Road, London E7.
