The UK’s largest professional body for estate agents, Propertymark, is supporting calls for greater protections for leaseholders as the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill progresses through Parliament.
The Earl of Lytton, a key proponent of the Polluter Pays Campaign, has proposed amendments to the bill that would establish a Building Safety Remediation Scheme to ensure remediation focuses on individuals responsible for building safety risks arising from non-compliant products or construction practices.
The amendments also stipulate that leaseholders or occupants should not be liable for any costs and that the Scheme should be funded through a levy on the construction industry as a whole, applying to buildings of all heights, not just those over 11 meters tall.
The proposals would help ensure that those responsible for causing building safety risks are held accountable for historic malpractice that has made some buildings unsafe.
Henry Griffith, policy and campaigns officer at Propertymark, said that “fundamentally, individuals who are not responsible for making buildings unsafe should not be charged with remediation costs.”
He added that the proposals for a Building Safety Remediation Scheme would lead to greater confidence in the buying and selling of property in high-rise buildings and stressed the need for a system that holds those directly responsible to account.
The amendments will be debated at the Grand Committee in the House of Lords starting from February 20th, 2023.
