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The Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill 2026-27

The government introduced the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill 2026-27 to the House of Commons on 14 October 2026. It will have its second reading on 27 October 2026.

The Grenfell Tower fire and a new approach to building safety

The Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017 resulted in the death of 72 people and injured more than 70 people. It drew attention to the regimes governing the fire safety of high-rise residential buildings in the UK.

Following the fire, the government commissioned the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and a review of building regulations and fire safety (the ‘Hackitt review’). In response to the Hackitt review and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the government introduced the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Buildings Safety Act introduced a new regime for higher risk buildings. However, the government has said that, nine years on from Grenfell, there remains a high number of residential buildings with unsafe cladding and that current legislation leaves gaps:

The Building Safety Act 2022 laid the foundations to address building safety, ensuring that the majority of developers contributed towards the cost of remediating buildings they built. It also protected the majority of leaseholders from most building safety costs, and established the Building Safety Regulator. However, current legislation leaves gaps in the system.

What does the bill aim to do?

The explanatory notes say the bill seeks to address “historical safety risks due to their risk to life and ensure that the necessary remediation work is completed to make buildings safe”.

It applies to ‘relevant buildings’ with two or more residential units which are 11 metres or more in height or have at least five storeys. The bill focuses on the external walls of ‘relevant buildings’, particularly cladding (a layer of material on the external walls).

On the day the bill was introduced, Baroness Blake of Leeds (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Building Safety, Fire and Resilience) wrote to notify stakeholders about the remediation bill [PDF]. The letter outlines the government’s four objectives for the bill:

• Clarifying which buildings require remediation.
• Giving regulators the powers they need to hold the worst “blockers” to account, ensuring those responsible for fixing historic and ongoing failures do so more quickly.
• Making the companies that made unsafe building products contribute to fix the problems they caused.
• Ensuring all residents have a route to remediation, and that no building is left behind.

The government published a Guide to the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill which accompanies the bill and explanatory notes.

Extent and application

The territorial extent of the bill is predominantly England and Wales, with the provisions in the bill mainly applying to England. The exception is provisions in Part 5 which extend and apply to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

What’s in the bill?

The content of the bill is structured around seven parts.

Duty to remediate

Part 1 of the bill includes:

• A new ‘legal duty to remediate’. Government guidance explains the legal duty applies to ‘responsible entities’ of medium and high-rise buildings (for example, freeholders).
• A new ‘duty to assess’ and ‘legal duty to remediate and mitigate’, to ensure the remediation of life-critical external wall fire safety risks.
• ‘Remediation management orders’ and the principle of a ‘remediation backstop’, whereby a local housing authority could apply to a tribunal for powers to remediate a building, if the building’s owner has failed to do so.
• Measures for ensuring compliance, monitoring and enforcement, including offences and financial penalties for non-compliance.

Mandatory register of medium-rise buildings

Part 2 sets out the provisions to establish a mandatory building register for medium-rise buildings. These are buildings with two or more residential dwellings which are between 11 and 18 metres high, or between five and seven storeys. There is already a register for higher-risk buildings which are defined as defined as at least 18 metres high or with at least seven storeys, and with two residential units.

Information about building ownership

Part 3 sets out procedures to enable regulators to obtain building ownership information for buildings over 11 metres high (medium and high-rise buildings). This would include new powers for relevant authorities to understand ‘beneficial ownership’ arrangements.

The government says this is to help regulators find out who is responsible for remediation and to enforce compliance with the duties in the bill.

Duty to cooperate to enforce building safety

Part 4 introduces a legal duty to cooperate between local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, and the Building Safety Regulator to enforce remediation and other relevant building safety functions.

Liability for cladding products

Part 5 of the bill sets out provisions to strengthen and extend provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) in relation to retrospective liability for cladding products.

The government has said that these provisions have “not worked as intended”, as there have been few claims against manufacturers of defective cladding. Part 5 therefore aims to make it easier for those who have paid to fix unsafe cladding to recover these costs from manufacturers.

Amending earlier legislation

Part 6 covers a range of miscellaneous amendments to existing legislation such as the Building Safety Act 2022, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and the Housing Act 2004.

This sets out details for remediation arrangements including provisions for unoccupied buildings or buildings where section 24 managers are in place.

Leaseholder protections

Part 7 sets out general provisions including leaseholder protections. This is intended to ensure costs, such as financial penalties for non-compliance, are not passed on to leaseholders through service charges. It also sets out provisions where leaseholders are responsible for the management of a building, such as under a Right to Manage arrangement.

Further reading

• Remediation Acceleration Plan – Gov.uk
• Remediation Acceleration Plan update, July 2025 – Gov.uk
• Public Accounts Committee: The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding Inquiry
• Government responses to the Public Accounts Committee Inquiry
• National Audit Office Report: Dangerous Cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio
• Grenfell Tower: Public Inquiry Recommendations and Government Responses
• Cladding remediation in England statistics- House of Commons Library