Under 11 metres: the gap the Safety Act left open

Can you name, right now, every building in your portfolio where the freeholder has not yet completed historical building safety works, and the date by which they were supposed to? Plenty of property leaders cannot answer that without opening three different systems and making two phone calls.

That gap matters more this week than it did last week. The Leaseholder Remediation (Building Safety) Bill gets its second reading in the House of Lords tomorrow, introduced by Baroness Pinnock, and it aims to make it a duty for freeholders and building owners to complete building safety works within set timeframes. If it passes, leaseholders would be able to force action when it is not taken. Your name sits on the portfolio that contains those buildings.

The Bill targets the gap between the Building Safety Act and buildings under 11 metres

The Building Safety Act 2022 was brought in after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and it changed how higher-risk buildings are managed, inspected and evidenced. But many of its provisions do not apply to buildings of less than 11 metres in height. That leaves a large slice of the residential stock, particularly low-rise blocks and converted houses, outside the strictest parts of the regime.

The Leaseholder Remediation Bill aims to plug several of those holes. It is separate to the government's recent draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, which is a different piece of legislation with its own timetable. The remediation bill focuses specifically on protecting leaseholders from the costs of historical building safety failures, and on making freeholders and building owners complete works within set timeframes.

For a portfolio manager, the practical question is not whether the Bill becomes law this session. It is whether you can show, for every building you manage, who is responsible for the remediation and what evidence exists that the work is programmed. Government figures show there are between 5,900 and 7,400 residential buildings in England that have or had unsafe cladding. Some of those sit in portfolios like yours.

Only 5% of private members' bills become legislation, so treat this as a signal not a deadline

Baroness Pinnock's Bill must go through committee, report and third readings in the Lords. It then faces five review stages in the Commons. Any amendments by the Commons push it back to the Lords, and any further amendments by the Lords push it back to the Commons. Only when both sides agree can it become law. If they cannot agree, the bill is withdrawn.

Only 5% of private members' bills ever become legislation. That is the honest arithmetic. So why should you care this week?

Because the direction of travel is already visible in the leasehold reform programme. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 and the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill published in January 2026 show a government willing to legislate on leaseholder protections. The Building Safety Protections have been live since July 2024. The abolition of the two-year qualifying period for lease extension claims has been live since January 2025. Right to Manage improvements have been live since March 2025, and buildings with mixed use can now access RTM if non-residential space is up to 50%, previously 25%.

Each of those changes shifted the balance between freeholder and leaseholder. The remediation bill, if it passes, would shift it further by giving leaseholders a route to force action. Even if it does not pass, the questions your leaseholders, your insurers and your board will ask are already changing.

Freeholders would face a legal duty to complete works within set timeframes

Nothing changes in law tomorrow. The second reading is a debate, not a commencement date. But the Bill's existence changes what you should be able to evidence.

If the Bill becomes law, freeholders and building owners would have a duty to complete building safety works within set timeframes. Leaseholders would be able to force action if it is not taken. That means the paper trail matters: who commissioned the survey, what defects were identified, what remediation was specified, when it was programmed, and what has actually been completed.

For a portfolio manager, that paper trail rarely sits in one place. It is split between managing agents, freeholders, contractors, insurers and your own asset records. The Bill does not create that problem, but it makes the problem visible.

You can read the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill and its command paper on the government's legislation page, and the wider leasehold toolkit on GOV.UK. The remediation bill itself is reported by Mortgage Strategy.

What to do this week, before the debate becomes a board question

Start with a simple list. For every residential building in your portfolio, note the freeholder, the managing agent, the building height, and whether any historical building safety defects have been identified. If you cannot fill in those four columns for every building, that is your first task.

Then check the remediation status. For each building with identified defects, can you produce a dated programme showing when works were specified, when they were due to start, and when they are due to complete? If the answer is no, you are carrying compliance exposure you cannot currently quantify.

Finally, check the leaseholder communication record. If a leaseholder asked today what is happening with remediation on their building, could you give them a dated answer? The Bill's purpose is to make that question enforceable. Even without the Bill, it is the question that ends up in a director's inbox.

Your 60-second self-check

• Can you list every residential building in your portfolio where historical building safety defects have been identified, with the freeholder named?
• For each of those buildings, can you produce a dated remediation programme showing what was specified and when it is due to complete?
• If a leaseholder asked today what is happening with remediation on their building, could you give them a dated answer without checking with anyone else?

If any of those questions stopped you short, the free 5-minute Director's Risk Check is the fastest way to see where your portfolio actually stands. It gives you a control score, your portfolio's breach exposure with official sources, and a board-ready briefing you can take into the next senior management meeting. You can also send it to a colleague to answer. Start at hermanwa.com/risk-check.

Herman's verdict

The Bill may never reach the statute book, but the question it asks is already being asked by leaseholders, insurers and boards. If you cannot produce a dated remediation programme for every building with identified defects, you are not waiting for legislation. You are already behind it.

— Herman