Recommendations & Conclusions
4 items
3
Conclusion
17th Report - The Remediation of Danger…
Acknowledged
We are appalled that those living in affected buildings continue to suffer an unacceptable financial and emotional toll. Far too many people continue to feel trapped in unsafe homes, many facing financial uncertainty and many unable to sell their homes and move on with their lives. Residents face ongoing delays …
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We are appalled that those living in affected buildings continue to suffer an unacceptable financial and emotional toll. Far too many people continue to feel trapped in unsafe homes, many facing financial uncertainty and many unable to sell their homes and move on with their lives. Residents face ongoing delays to works starting, often due to disputes over which safety risks are considered tolerable, and disruption when work is underway. MHCLG’s promise of a formal dispute resolution process is yet to materialise. The previous Committee recommended greater transparency and communication in 2020, yet information for many residents is still poor. MHCLG asserts that its 2023 Code of Practice for remediation puts residents at the heart of the process, but adherence is not mandatory and there is little evidence it is achieving this. Homes England’s ‘Tell Us’ tool, which enables residents to ask if Homes England is aware of their building, sounds promising but Homes England acknowledges there is more to do to publicise it. It is too early to say whether the resident surveys required for the Cladding Safety Scheme are making a difference. 5 recommendation MHCLG and Homes England should write to the Committee annually, starting alongside its TM response, with an update on how effectively it is putting residents at the heart of its remediation efforts, including: i) the usage and effectiveness of the ‘Tell Us Tool’ to help identify affected buildings; ii) the effectiveness of its dispute resolution process and whether it is using restrictions on developers; iii) how it is measuring and monitoring adherence to the Code of Practice and what action it is taking for any breaches; and iv) the outcomes of resident surveys conducted for the Cladding Safety Scheme.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the recommendation to provide annual updates but instead provides an overall remediation target for Summer 2029, without detailing how it will report on resident engagement, the ‘Tell Us Tool’, dispute resolution, Code of Practice adherence, or resident surveys.
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HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
17th Report - The Remediation of Danger…
Acknowledged
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) raised concerns that insurance companies were seeking to profit from the building safety crisis. The Shared Owners Network similarly wrote that many shared owners were struggling to pay housing-related costs such as insurance. End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS) raised exorbitant insurance as one of the …
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The Home Builders Federation (HBF) raised concerns that insurance companies were seeking to profit from the building safety crisis. The Shared Owners Network similarly wrote that many shared owners were struggling to pay housing-related costs such as insurance. End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS) raised exorbitant insurance as one of the many costs that risked putting residents “at risk of life-changing debt or forfeiture”.49 MHCLG’s Plan acknowledged that as well as needing to find thousands of pounds to pay for insurance, high insurance can make it difficult for people to sell their properties. We asked what efforts had been made to discuss the issue with insurance companies. MHCLG recognised that this was “a very serious problem”. It told us that it had asked the Financial Conduct Authority to undertake research into the high-rise buildings market in 2022. This found that the price of insurance premiums in high-rise buildings had doubled between 2016 and 2021. In its plan, MHCLG noted and that some individuals were facing annual bills of over £3,000.50 47 Q 117; MHCLG, Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - December 2024, 23 January 2025 48 Committee of Public Accounts, Progress in remediating dangerous cladding, Sixteenth Report of Session 2019-21, HC 406, 16 September 2020, recommendation 4 49 RDC0006, Written evidence submitted by the Home Builders Federation; RDC0143, Written evidence submitted by the Shared Owners’ Network; RDC0145, Written evidence submitted by End Our Cladding Scandal 50 Q 50; Financial Conduct Authority, Report on insurance for multi-occupancy buildings, September 2022 para 1.16; MHCLG Remediation Acceleration Plan 20
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees on the importance of building evidence on insurance costs and will continue to gather data with industry to inform work on potentially supporting industry to reduce fire-related liabilities. An update will be provided by the end of 2025.
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HM Treasury
31
Recommendation
17th Report - The Remediation of Danger…
Acknowledged
MHCLG told us that, as well as options for intervening in the market to reduce premiums while buildings are awaiting remediation, it expected the insurance industry to hold to its word in reducing premiums as risk is reduced. It said it would monitor if premiums were falling as buildings remediated …
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MHCLG told us that, as well as options for intervening in the market to reduce premiums while buildings are awaiting remediation, it expected the insurance industry to hold to its word in reducing premiums as risk is reduced. It said it would monitor if premiums were falling as buildings remediated through the PAS 9980 standard came through the process. However, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) indicated that without significant changes to the government’s remediation approach, premiums may remain high even after remediation.53 The PAS 9980 standard takes a more proportionate approach to remediation that prioritises risk to life and not risk to the building. This approach calls for greater use of lower cost mitigations such as sprinklers and in some cases, where the risk to life is deemed low or ‘tolerable’, it can mean some flammable material staying in place.54
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees on the importance of building evidence on insurance costs and will continue to gather data with industry to inform work on potentially supporting industry to reduce fire-related liabilities. An update will be provided by the end of 2025.
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HM Treasury
34
Conclusion
17th Report - The Remediation of Danger…
Acknowledged
Under the PAS 9980 methodology, competent professionals conduct Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls (FRAEWs) in which they make conclusions about the risk to life posed by a building’s cladding and make proposals about remedial measures to reduce the level of risk to ‘tolerable’,57 The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) …
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Under the PAS 9980 methodology, competent professionals conduct Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls (FRAEWs) in which they make conclusions about the risk to life posed by a building’s cladding and make proposals about remedial measures to reduce the level of risk to ‘tolerable’,57 The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) told us that the PAS 9980 assessments were resulting in different conclusions according to the individual conducting the assessment, and often conclusions that differed from the wider ‘Fire Risk Assessments’ that they were meant to inform.58 End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS) told us in written evidence that three years after PAS9980 was introduced, huge inconsistency in the quality of FRAEWs, was causing “endless delays” over work starting due to disputes over the scope of works. At our evidence session, EOCS told us if 15 different fire engineers were to conduct a FRAEW, they would come up with 15 different opinions.59
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Government response AI summary
The government states that remediation reduces risk and that PAS 9980 was developed with expert advice and public consultation; MHCLG has asked the insurance industry to build evidence on claims performance of remediated buildings and share that with the government.
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HM Treasury