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<p>We have brought forward an ambitious toolkit of measures under the Building Safety
Act 2022, which enables those responsible for defective work to be pursued. Civil
claims can now be brought against manufacturers of, or those who have supplied, defective
or mis-sold construction products, or those who have supplied or marketed in breach
of regulations, where these products have been incorporated in a dwelling and that
has caused or contributed to a dwelling being unfit for habitation. This provision,
which applies to all dwellings, has retrospective effect for cladding products with
a limitation period of 30 years and prospective effect for all construction products
with a limitation period of 15 years.</p><p>The Act retrospectively extends the limitation
period under section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 from six to 30 years and
extends the reach of civil liability to associated companies of developers, including
trusts, to ensure that those businesses in the sector who have used shell companies
and other complex corporate structures can be pursued for contributions towards the
remediation of historical safety defects. These provisions will help to ensure that
all parties that play a part in creating building safety defects are in line for costs
to rectify them.</p><p>The Act gives the Secretary of State the power to establish
a statutory scheme to distinguish between industry actors that have committed to take
responsibility for making buildings safe, including by remedying defective buildings,
and those that fail to do so. The Act also gives the Secretary of State powers to
prevent those that have failed to take responsibility from carrying out development
for which planning permission has been granted, and to prevent them from receiving
building control approval on their developments. This means that those that take responsibility
and do the right thing can continue to go about their business freely and with confidence,
while those that don't may suffer commercial and reputational consequences.</p><p>Additionally,
anti-avoidance and enforcement provisions - including remediation orders and remediation
contributions orders - are included in the Act to ensure that those who are liable
to pay under leaseholder protections actually do so. Relevant authorities now have
the power to compel responsible entities to fund and undertake the necessary remediation
work. Where firms are repeatedly refusing to pay to fix these buildings, the government's
new Recovery Strategy Unit will pursue these firms, working closely with other enforcement
authorities.</p>
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