MPs call for contractors to share cost of fixing unsafe buildings

But the Committee made a series of recommendations demanding further action, including:

The report also recommended that it should be the Building Safety Regulator and not building owners that decides whether a building needs a fire risk assessment.

Commenting on the report, Betts said: “Leaseholders should not be paying a penny to rectify faults not of their doing in order to make their homes safe. Nearly five years after the tragic Grenfell fire, it is shameful this situation is yet to be properly resolved. While we welcome Michael Gove’s commitment to fixing these issues, we are concerned there are gaps in the secretary of state’s proposals which risk leaving leaseholders to pick up the bill.

“Leaseholders are no more to blame for non-cladding defects than they are for faulty cladding on homes they bought in good faith. The government should bring forward a Comprehensive Building Safety Fund, or upgrade their existing funding plans, to ensure that the costs of remediating all building safety defects on buildings where the original ‘polluter’ cannot be traced are covered and that leaseholders are also compensated for costs they have already paid out.

“The government should be looking beyond developers and manufacturers to contribute to the costs of fixing the building safety crisis. We recommend the government identify all relevant parties who played a role in this crisis, such as product suppliers, installers, contractors and subcontractors, and legally require them to pay towards fixing individual faults and ensure that they also contribute to collective funding for building safety remediation. Insurers should also be required to contribute to funds for remediation.”