Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
17th Report - The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Published 21 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
When buildings are stuck in the remediation process, regulators (local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, and the Building Safety Regulator– for higher-risk buildings33 ) take enforcement action to get the process moving. MHCLG’s Plan recognised that constraints around the capacity of regulators was a barrier to the pace of remediation. It explained that in many areas, enforcement officers were too stretched, and expertise was too scarce when compared with the scale of the challenge.34 The Local Government Association told us that local authorities’ enforcement work was facing issues of funding, skills, as well as a lack of clarity over the money available and the regulatory environment, which made it difficult for local authorities to plan. It explained that local authorities were trying to train Environmental Health Officers to undertake enforcement activity as quickly as possible, but said there was a risk of losing them to other parts of the construction sector. MHCLG told us that it had published additional guidance to help regulators to understand the enforcement tools that the Building Safety Act 2022 had made available and that it had put additional funding into enforcement.35
From: Public Accounts Committee, 17th Report - The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding (HC 362), 21 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventeenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventeenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on the remediation of dangerous cladding, with target dates between summer and December 2025, but disagrees with the recommendation on construction manufacturers paying a share of remediation costs.
- On the Remediation Acceleration Plan, the government agrees to update the Committee in Autumn 2025. It says it "has not seen significant evidence that non-cladding defects are slowing down remediation" but is committed to removing blockers.
- On construction manufacturers paying a share of remediation costs, the government disagrees. It says it is consulting on redress routes in the Construction Products Reform Green Paper and that leaseholders and tenants are protected from the cost of cladding remediation.
- The government will publish latest building number estimates "by the summer", but the timing of cost and completion date estimates "will depend on the outcome of the forthcoming Spending Review".
- On insurance, the government agrees and will share an update on progress by the end of 2025. It is gathering data on premiums and is considering whether government "might support industry to reduce fire related liabilities".