More homeowners who have been facing significant bills to make their homes safe will be given better protection from those high costs, following new measures announced by the government.

Existing rules already protect many leaseholders from footing the bill for fixing historic building safety defects, but some people still fall through gaps in the system due to different forms of ownership not covered by the law, leaving them at risk of paying for problems they did not cause.

The government says it will now go further to narrow these gaps and give more people financial support.

Construction product manufacturers connected to historic unsafe cladding and insulation products will also be made to contribute more towards putting affected buildings right.

These new proposals were unveiled in parliament during the second reading of the Remediation of Unsafe Cladding Bill – a drive to get unsafe buildings fixed faster and make sure those responsible for fixing unsafe buildings will face tougher consequences if they fail to act.

Building safety minister Baroness Blake said: “We are going further to protect more homeowners from unfair costs and make construction product manufacturers contribute towards putting things right.

“Alongside new powers to force those responsible to fix unsafe buildings, these measures will help give residents the safety and security they deserve.”

The new measures aim to help:

• Leaseholders who buy a flat as their only home but miss out on costs protections because of the previous owners’ circumstances. Under current rules, whether someone is protected from some building safety bills can depend on the circumstances of the person who owned the flat on 14 February 2022. This means someone can buy a flat later as their only or main home and still miss out, because a previous owner was ineligible. The government says it is exploring how to narrow this gap, to help more leaseholders feel confident in the safety of their home
• Leaseholders in collectively owned and enfranchised buildings who can face some of the biggest bills for fixing fire-safety problems. Because there is no separate freeholder, residents are not covered by the leaseholder protections of the Building Safety Act, putting them at risk of paying a lot. The government says new funding will help towards remediation of internal high risk and high-cost fire-safety defects
• Leaseholders with multiple properties that have non-cladding building safety problems they did not cause and are not currently protected under the Building Safety Act. At the moment, protections generally cover people who owned no more than three properties on 14 February 2022. The government says it plans to raise this limit to six, so more people who owned four to six properties and did not qualify on this date will be protected from having these costs passed on to them. The government says this will support individuals at risk of high bills through no fault of their own and in many cases need to make their properties safe for the people that live in them.

The bill place a legal duty on those responsible to fix unsafe buildings, with those failing to act facing criminal penalties and fines of up to £500,000. It will also allow authorities to step in and get work done where those responsible consistently refuse to do so.