Government legal action is forcing a developer to fix building safety issues at one of its buildings in Birmingham.
Grey GR has been aware of the defects at Galbraith House for six years, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), and now has three weeks to fix them.
The government is also taking enforcement action on six other Grey GR buildings, with trials set to take place this year.
Wallace Estates, another developer which DLUHC says has consistently failed to fix building safety defects, has now accepted remediation orders brought by the government covering four buildings.
The First-tier Tribunal issued a remediation order against Wallace Estates following an application by leaseholders in Croydon. Wallace Estates was ordered to fix its unsafe building by May 2025, and criticised for not acting fast enough to remediate defects it knew were present.
In all five orders issued under the Building Safety Act to date, the First-tier Tribunal has ordered building owners to fix, or pay to fix, their unsafe buildings.
‘Get on with remediation’
Last year, Newham Council successfully prosecuted a building owner who failed to remove dangerous cladding from a residential high-rise in East London.
Minister for housing and building safety, Lee Rowley, this week convened a round table of council chief executives to discuss the action they are taking against building owners who are failing to fix medium- and high-rise buildings with known building safety issues in their area.
Rowley pressed the councils to explain how the £8m in funding from DLUHC to boost enforcement teams is being used to force rogue building owners to act.
He said: “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 to fix their buildings is clear: get on with remediation or action will be taken against you.”
