The remediation Bill royally revisited

The King’s Speech, delivered on 13 May 2026, confirmed in a single sentence that the government will bring forward a Bill to speed up remediation for people living in homes with unsafe cladding.  As set out in the background briefing notes, the Remediation Bill (the Bill) “will tackle those who are blocking remediation, restore confidence in the housing market, and make sure no building, and no resident, is left behind”.

The Bill was originally one of the key foundations of the Government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP), first published in December 2024, with the intention of bringing certainty and urgency to the remediation process by introducing a hard ‘endpoint’ for remediation. However, its roll out has been delayed in part due to the bottleneck in applications to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) (see Breaking the bottleneck: Making the Building Safety Act work for you).

The three core objectives of the RAP were to:

• fix buildings faster;
• identify all 11+ metre residential buildings with unsafe cladding – so that every building with unsafe cladding is found and fixed; and
• support residents so that leaseholders and residents of buildings with unsafe cladding can get the support they deserve throughout the remediation process.

The RAP also identified several barriers to achieving progress towards resolving the cladding and building safety crisis that followed the Grenfell Tower tragedy, namely:

• reluctance, delays and non-compliance on the part of landlords;
• fragmented accountability stemming from gaps in the current legislation;
• constrained regulatory capacity and scarcity of relevant expertise;
• varying capabilities and funding available to social housing providers; and
• a shortfall in skilled professionals capable of carrying out remediation works.

These barriers are evidenced by the fact that of the 4,310 buildings in England over 11 metres identified as having unsafe cladding, remediation work has been completed on only 35 per cent.

The Bill, which seeks to address some of these barriers, sits within the government’s wider housing reform agenda and forms part of the building safety legislative framework including the Fire Safety Act 2021, Building Safety Act 2022, Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

A statutory duty and a hard “endpoint”

The Bill is expected to introduce a legal obligation on landlords to remediate unsafe cladding, referred to in the RAP July 2025 update as a “Legal Duty to Remediate” as well as introducing the following remediation deadlines:

• Existing high-rise buildings (18+ metres) must be remediated by the end of 2029.
• Lower rise buildings (between 11 and 18 metres) that have not been remediated or are not scheduled for completion by the end of 2029 will be escalated for investigation and enforcement. 2031 will mark the natural end date for completion of works on these buildings.

Landlords who fail to meet this duty will face “severe consequences” – potentially extending to criminal prosecution.

Enhanced enforcement powers

The Bill is also expected to equip regulators including local authorities, fire and rescue authorities and the BSR with stronger remediation enforcement powers to bring the building safety crisis to an end.

The background briefing notes to the King’s Speech also detail the introduction of a remediation backstop to allow a third party, such as Homes England, to step in and carry out remediation work themselves, ensuring that residents have a route to remediation even where the responsible party is determined to ignore their duty to keep residents safe.

A consistent assessment method and a new register

It is widely recognised that existing methods for assessing external wall systems are fragmented and lack both consistency and reliability. This is causing delays to remediation works and is leaving residents exposed to unacceptable risk.

A less widely reported but potentially highly significant feature of the Bill is the proposed introduction of a legally defined, consistent assessment methodology intended to support the government’s objective of identifying all buildings with unsafe cladding. To ensure a nationally consistent approach to remediation assessments, the Bill will mandate how external wall assessments are carried out, as well as introducing an 11-18 metre register to identify all remaining buildings requiring remediation work. This means that, 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.

Accountability for construction product manufacturers

Finally, the Bill, as proposed, seeks to simplify the process by which freeholders, developers and contractors can recover costs from construction product manufacturers whose materials caused the issues at the heart of the cladding and building safety crisis, thereby closing existing legal loopholes.

Timing

Progress on the Bill is currently delayed pending available parliamentary time. Whilst there is no clear timetable as to when the legislation may come into force, the direction of travel is clear, and we expect to see a draft of the Bill this year.

Conclusion

While the Remediation Bill is still at a relatively early stage, its proposals suggest a more robust and coordinated approach to resolving the building safety issues that have persisted since Grenfell. If implemented effectively, the Bill has the potential to drive meaningful progress towards safer homes and greater accountability across the sector nationwide. It may also mean that we see an eventual slowdown of remediation order applications as the Bill, once enacted, can do the heavy lifting on forcing remediation. We may however see a rise in remediation contribution orders where building owners are compelled to comply with their Legal Duty to Remediate before issues of liability have been resolved.

However, until the legislation is published in full and its practical operation tested, significant questions remain as to the precise scope of the new obligations, the extent of enforcement powers and how the reforms will operate in practice for landlords, developers, contractors and leaseholders alike.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss the implications of the Building Safety Act, please contact a member of our Building Safety team.