Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation 12

Fifth report: Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill Published 24 Nov 2020 Paragraph 53 Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Recommendation (the committee's words)

We do not think it necessary to establish the building safety charge separate from the service charge. Aside from the unnecessary additional bureaucracy and administration costs, a separate charge means additional, separate, bills for leaseholders at intervals and within periods which may differ from those in their leases. The same benefits of transparency (the Government’s justification for a separate charge) can be achieved by implementing our previous recommendation on standardised forms for service charge invoices.

From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Fifth report: Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill (HC 466), paragraph 53, 24 November 2020

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 7 July 2021 (deadline 24 January 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government responds to the Committee's 43 recommendations on the draft Building Safety Bill by agreeing with many, including on publishing secondary legislation during the Bill's passage and excluding historic costs from the building safety charge, while disagreeing with others and giving its reasons.

On delegated powers, it agrees with the Committee and will remove the power at paragraph 16(1)(c) of Schedule 8 from the introduced Bill. It intends to publish detail on Gateways and construction products "before the relevant clauses are considered in committee".
On leaseholders, it agrees that historical costs should be excluded from the Building Safety Charge, which "will only cover the ongoing costs of the new regime". It does not consider it appropriate to rely on existing service charge provisions, giving variation between leases as the reason.
On the regulator, it does not agree that factors for expanding scope should be specified in the Bill through a 'have regard' requirement. It also does not believe property protection should be a statutory objective "at this time".
On competence, it agrees with the objectives for third-party accreditation but does not agree that provisions should be in the Bill, preferring statutory guidance for "greater flexibility". It will publish outline transition and cost recovery information, the latter in "Summer 2021".

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