My Lords, I admire the persistence of my noble friend Lord Foster of Bath in his indefatigable pursuit of the perhaps unsexy but very important issue of electrical safety defects, as evidenced in his Amendment 95A.
The first group of amendments relates to building safety—a subject that we have debated many times in this Chamber in recent years, following the tragic events of the Grenfell Tower fire. Amendments 82C to 82M, in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, relate to a proposal that higher-risk buildings should have a building trustee. The trustee would be an impartial figure, whose role would be to ensure that the interests, rights and responsibilities of the landlord and leaseholders were balanced, that the building was properly maintained, and that the service charge provided value for money—a practice that exists elsewhere. We find the noble Earl’s proposal interesting, and certainly worthy of consideration in the future. However, it is quite a detailed proposal which may not have the chance to be scrutinised further in the context of the Bill.
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Other amendments tabled by the noble Earl would make provision for what would happen in the event of insolvency of the landlord, particularly to prevent the termination of service contracts or insurance policies. Redressing the balance between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords is a key aspect of the Bill, and it is important that we explore the different approaches to achieving this. The noble Earl also raises an important question about what happens in the case of insolvency to ensure that there is a person able to take responsibility for key aspects of building management.
Amendments 98 and 101, which were not moved by the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, interestingly also relate to the accountable person and responsible actors. This was a key theme in the passage of the Building Safety Act, and it is clear from these amendments and others that there are unresolved issues. This was highlighted positively by the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, in her Amendment 104, when she talked about the unintended consequences of the lack of a Section 24 manager. I look forward to the Minister’s explanation of what seems to me an important and relevant question.
Amendment 101, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Young, is particularly important as it makes the case for a new body to oversee and accelerate remedial works. We are particularly concerned about the pace at which remediation is happening, with the latest building safety remediation data highlighting the fact that only 23% of buildings have completed remediation works since the Grenfell tragedy. In the meantime, residents are either living in unsafe buildings or being forced out of their own homes. Reporting in yesterday’s Sunday Times, Martina Lees outlined how 15,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes because of safety risks. Many of those people are living in hostels or paying rent alongside a mortgage on a flat they cannot se-ll.
The costs faced by leaseholders is also the subject of Amendment 103, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Stevenage, which would impose a cap on the charges that can be passed on to leaseholders as a result of the Building Safety Act. The Act introduced important changes to the regulatory framework, but it has had a knock-on effect on the charges leaseholders face. As my noble friend Lady Pinnock has said time and again, it is the leaseholders, who have done nothing wrong, who are paying the price of this crisis. We welcome amendments that would protect leaseholders from those costs, and we look forward to assurances from the Minister that the Government are taking action to ensure that all leaseholders affected by the building safety crisis get the support they need—sooner rather than later.