Contribution
It is a great privilege to be in this position, and I very much look forward to working with both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord. I stress “with” rather than “against”, because I think we come from a strong, shared commitment to all things local government—in particular, serving the people in our communities that we have variously represented. There are some tough times ahead, but I will do my best to address the concerns raised today. Dialogue will be ongoing, of course, particularly given the different legislation that is proposed; that will give us a real opportunity to go into much greater detail than we can probably do today.
Let me respond to the concerns from the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, about the money, which is, of course, a crucial issue. To reiterate, the Government are committed to remediating buildings as quickly as possible. I have to say that the launch of the levy, which will come in in October, will not affect the pace of remediation. The Treasury has agreed that the necessary expenditure can be made in advance of receipts from the building safety levy rather than slowing remediation to match the profile of the levy receipts. Of course, the Government will report on levy receipts and remediation expenditure in the annual trust statement. I hope that gives the reassurance that the noble Baroness has been looking for.
The remediation of unsafe cladding Bill will deliver on the manifesto commitments to address the pace of the remediation work. Most importantly, it will ensure that those responsible for the building safety crisis pay towards fixing the problem they have caused. We all know that there is further work to do on this. I am grateful for the collaboration that we have had so far from some developers, but I also recognise that there are other avenues to pursue, as encouraged by those developers. We have to make sure that we take on the most reluctant landlords; in particular, we must make sure that they take action and that, if they do not, they face severe sanctions.
I want to reassure the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson. This is interesting because I first started working on this when I was in Opposition, going back to 2022, and some of the comments that were brought up today have been a feature throughout. I reassure the noble Lord that we have worked closely with stakeholders and industry to minimise the impact on housing supply. The building industry as a whole is balancing the need to raise the revenue required to make homes safe, and those responsible show a clear recognition that this is an important dynamic on which we need to keep moving to achieve our manifesto commitments. As the noble Lord said, they are ambitious, but there is the will to do it, and the Secretary of State is committed to working on all fronts to move this forward.
The NPPF definition is specifically designed to inform planning policy, whereas the levy regulations set out criteria for developments and local authorities to apply on a site-by-site basis to ascertain qualification for a tax discount. We need to make sure that we do not merge these facts together. The 75% is designed to approximate the NPPF definition for tax purposes. All these matters have been looked at and that will continue to be the case as we move forward. We have a strong ambition around affordable housing running alongside our ambition around remediation. I hope both noble Lords will welcome the importance that we are giving this issue to help take us forward.
To recap, the building safety levy is essential to fund the remediation of historic building safety issues, particularly without further burdening residents and leaseholders. The amending regulations laid before the Committee are designed to support this work and make the levy work more efficiently and in accordance with our initial intention to support the redevelopment of existing sites. They are intended to correct drafting and to improve the clarity and consistency of process for developers and local authorities, rather than to alter the underlying policy design of the levy.
To further reassure the noble Lord, consultation with local authorities has been intense. We have made sure that the extra duties funding is in place, helping them to come forward. I am very pleased with the response so far from local authorities, as it is critical that we have that relationship with them so that they can fulfil their responsibilities in this space. As well as the government contribution to funding, we all accept that the development industry must contribute to our work to make buildings safe for those who live in them.
To repeat, the Government are committed to building 1.5 million homes this Parliament to meet the country’s long-term housing needs and unlock growth. This must work in parallel with our commitment to remedying the building safety features of the past. I repeat that we expect developers to make a full contribution to the overall costs of making buildings safe, reflecting the wider benefit they derive from a well-functioning market and the substantial funding and support the Government have already provided and continue to provide for the housing market. With those comments, I commend the instrument to the Committee.