The Government has announced that the £4.5 billion Building Safety Fund has reopened for new applications.

This means that more leaseholders in high-rise homes will be able to prove that they qualify for legal protections against unfair bills for building safety costs under the Building Safety Act.

The Act will ensure that building owners and landlords will be held accountable for making buildings safe. This fund will provide fairness to leaseholders, whilst making homes safer.

Buildings over 18 metres with cladding issues are eligible to apply for the fund, which has allocated over £1.3 billion towards making homes safe since its launch in 2020. For buildings 11-18 metres in height where the original developer or building owner cannot be identified or held responsible, the Government is launching a new scheme to cover the costs of remediating unsafe cladding. Further details of this scheme will be announced in due course.

A new Leaseholder Protections Checker will help leaseholders understand if they qualify for financial protections under the Building Safety Act, whilst legislation that is now fully operational means leaseholders can prove legally for the first time that they are protected from historical building safety costs. For further information on the Leaseholder Protection Checker please see the helpful link. https://www.gov.uk/check-building-safety-costs

Additionally, building owners that invoice qualifying leaseholders and continue to seek payments of outstanding bills for work to fix historical building safety defects could now face criminal action, unless they can provide proof they are legally entitled to recover the costs.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up said: "The Building Safety Act makes clear building owners’ liabilities and gives us powers to pursue those that continue to flout the rules. It has also introduced far-reaching legal protections to relieve many leaseholders from the financial burden of fixing their homes. With these now fully up and running, I urge any homeowners who may qualify to see if they are eligible using our online Leaseholder Protections Checker as soon as possible."

I welcome these measures, which I am confident will further contribute towards ensuring we have the homes Norwich needs, which is one of my key local priorities I have set out for constituents. To find out more about what action I am taking both in Norwich and Westminster for this work, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/homes.