Developers yet to sign building safety contract

Two firms have yet to sign the government pledge to protect leasholders from physical and financial loss from high-rise defects.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched its developer remediation contract in late January and expected housebuilders to sign it by 13 March 2023. 

The document represents an agreement from developers to ensure that buildings that are 11 metres or more meet fire safety standards. 

This contract applies to buildings that firms built or refurbished in the last 30 years before 5 April 2022. 

Full scope

Following the Grenfell Tower fire, where a 24-storey residential building caught fire and killed 72 people, the DLUHC wrote a letter in March 2022 to major developers about defects in high-rise buildings. 

The letter urged that leaseholders should not have to pay for any costs associated with life-critical fire-safety remediation work. 

Instead, firms will front the bill for repair works, and pay specific fees, on a case-by-case basis, to the DLUHC for buildings that do not comply with building and fire safety standards. 

49 developers signed the letter, and currently, 49 have signed the contract, legally binding them to the above pledge. 

Besides taking responsibility for remediation works, contractors must also inform residents about building works and repairs and reimburse taxpayers for the funding they use for these works.

Developers on the contract

The following firms have signed the contract:

The DLUHC excluded four firms that had initially signed the contract but had not developed buildings that fit the scope of the agreement. These companies are: 

• Davidsons.
• MacTaggart & Mickel.
• Robertson.
• Wain Homes.

The two developers that have not signed the contract are Abbey Developments and Rydon Homes. 

Consequences

Along with the contract, the government has put forward the Responsible Actors Scheme, informed by sections 126-129 of the Building Safety Act 2022.

This scheme will impose planning and building control prohibitions on eligible developers who do not comply with it. 

Penalisations can include the secretary of state’s power to block contractors from delivering building work, even if they have planning permission. 

Further controls, like blocking building approval, will also be used by the government to uphold the benefits signatories hold above non-signatories. 

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