A Labour MP wants the government to include private landlords in the Building Safety Act’s leaseholder protections scheme. 

The government introduced the Building Safety Act in 2022 in a bid ensure that leaseholders do not have to pay to fix safety failures in buildings in which they played no part developing: it also introduced a cap on the costs of remediating fire safety defects for some leaseholders. 

But private rental sector landlords are not included as possible recipients so may find themselves liable for the full cost of fixing safety defects.

Now Hilary Benn MP has tabled an Early Day Motion on the issue: this calls for a building safety fund for remediating failures on buildings under 11 metres in height. 

Early-day motions typically do not get debated but are vehicles for MPs to put are motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons, and though most do not actually get debated, they are often used to highlight issues to the government.

The National Residential Landlords Association has created a template letter for members to send to MPs, urging them to back Benin’s initiative.

The association is calling for the introduction of a Building Safety Remediation Scheme to ensure that all buildings with safety defects – regardless of height or ownership – are remediated under the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

Letters can be downloaded and submitted directly to MPs by the NRLA’s online tool.