The King’s Speech on 13 May 2026 saw confirmation of the proposed Remediation Bill, highlighting the government’s commitment to drive forward the remediation process by “fixing long-standing gaps in the law and ending years of inaction”
In his speech, His Majesty King Charles III stated: “My Government will bring forward a Bill to speed up remediation for people living in homes with unsafe cladding.”
To be brought in this parliamentary session, the Remediation Bill seeks to tackle those who are “blocking remediation, restore confidence in the housing market, and make sure no building, and no resident, is left behind”.
Acknowledging the impact of the ongoing cladding crisis on residents, construction product manufacturers will now be made to pay towards building safety defects, and developers, contractors, and others will no longer be blocked by technical legal barriers that prevent them from pursuing manufacturers.
The proposed Bill will also give regulators the power to sanction those who “continuously and egregiously block remediation” and introduce a new legal duty for those responsible for the safety of their buildings to identify, assess, and fix their buildings without delay, or else face possible criminal prosecution.
A national consistent approach to remediation work will also be introduced, including a mandate on how external wall assessments are carried out. The creation of an 11-18 metre register will enable the government to identify all remaining buildings requiring remediation work. For the first time, the government will have a complete record of all medium-rise buildings in England, “putting an end to the information gap and improving system readiness if new risks affect homes”.
A “remediation backstop” will also be implemented, allowing third parties, such as Homes England, to step in and carry out remediation work where necessary. This will be backed by “tough sanctions” for those responsible so they “cannot benefit, including cost recovery and potential sale of their interest.”
The government has reiterated that the Bill will also fix gaps in previous legislation to protect residents and guarantee a route to remediation, even in cases where “ownership is absent, unclear, or negligent”.
“Every building made safe allows those who are stuck in unsuitable housing, through no fault of their own, to sell their flats and move on with their lives.”
Welcoming the Bill’s announcement, BSR Chair, Lord Andrew Roe, said: “The Remediation Bill will give us additional tools we need to compel reluctant landlords to take action to remediate their buildings and remove unsafe cladding, or face severe sanctions.”
Commissioner for the London Fire Brigade, Jonathan Smith, said: “Nearly nine years on from the Grenfell Tower Fire, there remain far too many buildings with serious fire safety issues. Ensuring that remediation progresses more effectively is critically important to restoring the confidence of residents in the safety of their homes.”
The Property Institute (TPI) welcomed the Bill, which would establish a single construction regulator and ensure safety standards for the design, construction, and management of high-risk residential buildings. However, TPI stated that the Bill fell short on two crucial issues: implementing a backstop for pledged developers and addressing internal safety defects.
“First, the backstop for inaction applies to landlords, but not to developers – who pledged to fix their buildings more than three years ago but have still only completed 10% of the necessary remediation work, our data shows. This is counterintuitive when developers were responsible for the construction of their buildings and are taking the longest to fix them. We have found that nearly 60% of developer-pledged projects have not yet even agreed the scope of works.
“Second, the government is justified in focusing on removing unsafe external cladding and façades, but the Bill fails to address internal safety defects such as inadequate compartmentation, and non-compliant fire doors. This means residents will continue living in potentially unsafe buildings, which has a significant knock-on consequence of paying unjust costs to fund interim safety measures, and higher insurance premiums.”
Sharing similar concerns, campaign group End Our Cladding Scandal said in a statement: “The Bill is silent on the key issues Labour spoke so strongly about in opposition: non-cladding defects, non-qualifying leaseholders, the failing Developer Remediation Contract, weak risk assessment standards, extortionate buildings insurance, and shared ownership.”
It added: “The proposed Legal Duty to Remediate and remediation backstop are likely to take years to have any effect, and even then only for a fraction of affected buildings. Plans for an 11–18 metre register risk repeating the damage caused by the woeful regulatory regime introduced for high-rise buildings.”
While the Bill extends to England and Wales, the majority of the measures mentioned will only apply in England.
More details of the Bills introduced in the King’s Speech, including background briefing notes, can be found here.