BSR to Establish Remediation Enforcement Unit for High Risk Buildings
21/2/25
The government plans to accelerate its post-Grenfell cladding replacement efforts by establishing a dedicated watchdog and enforcement unit.
Building Safety Minister Alex Norris announced that officials are eager to create a Remediation Enforcement Unit.
In response to a written question in Parliament on Friday, 7 February, he stated: "The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) takes action to ensure that applications that do not meet the regulatory standards of building safety are rejected.
"We understand that the introduction of the new regulatory regime initially resulted in a lot of poor quality and incomplete applications from industry.
"BSR continue to support applicants to meet the functional requirements of the building regulations.
"It is worth noting that the requirements in the regulations are not new and rejected applications contribute to the processing time of compliant applications.
"BSR officials are also working with MHCLG officials on setting up a dedicated Remediation Enforcement Unit within the Building Safety Regulator.
"The Remediation Enforcement Unit is designed to hold owners of ACM clad buildings to account, enforcing remediation where necessary, and will be essential to meet the government's priority for remediation of unsafe Higher-Risk-Buildings (HRBs).
"We are considering further options to ensure compliance with the building safety regulations as part of the ongoing spending review.
"The Building Safety Act 2022 also requires that within five years of the Act coming into force, the Secretary of State appoint an independent person to carry out a review.
"This includes reviewing the effectiveness of the regulator, and provisions made by or under the Building Act 1984 such as the dutyholder duties and enforcement measures."