Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted
Persistent and new barriers hinder accelerated progress of cladding remediation efforts.
Conclusion
The Plan identified several barriers to remediating at pace and outlined the steps MHCLG was taking to address them. Some of these barriers are those MHCLG told the previous committee about in 2020, including landlord reluctance to come forward, limited supply chains of skilled workers needed for remediation and constrained regulatory capacity for enforcement. Others are newer, such as social housing provider capability and access to funding, developer inconsistency third–party disputes, and miserable resident experience.11
Government Response Summary
The government committed to updating the Committee by July 2025 on its ongoing work to increase capacity and skills across the building sector to accelerate remediation, including providing additional funding for the Building Safety Regulator and working with mayoral strategic areas.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2025 2.2 The government agrees to update the Committee on the work it is doing to increase capacity and skills across the building sector to accelerate remediation, by the end of July 2025. 2.3 Progressing remediation and ensuring that residents are safe in their own homes is a priority for this government. Whilst the government accepts that the context is challenging, it does not accept that it has been complacent about the risks identified by the Committee. 2.4 Examples of the work MHCLG has done to increase capacity and skills across the sector supporting government’s remediation and housebuilding objectives include: providing additional funding to boost the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) capacity of case officers; improve infrastructure, training and processes to maximise BSR’s operational efficiency; bringing in additional experienced and qualified building control inspectors from private sector Registered Building Control Approvers to bolster its capacity to deal with both remediation work and Gateway applications for new High-Rise Buildings. 2.5 The department is also working with mayoral strategic areas to drive remediation through Local Remediation Acceleration Plans – bringing together expertise, local knowledge and resources to create single area strategies. 2.6 In terms of capacity and skills in the construction sector, the department continually monitors and reacts to changes and capacity in the remediation supply chain, via market capacity surveys, supplier engagement forums and through continual liaison and collaboration with delivery partners.