There was a moment, not so long ago, when it felt as though the long-running cladding crisis might finally be edging towards something firmer. Angela Rayner’s proposed Remediation Bill was meant to be a line in the sand – clear deadlines, clear responsibility, and real consequences for those who continue to drag their feet.

That moment has now slipped.

The Bill, which would have placed a statutory duty on building owners to fix unsafe cladding within set timeframes, has been delayed. For residents living in affected buildings, that delay is not an abstract Westminster problem. It is another stretch of waiting in homes they know are unsafe, paying for interim measures, watching deadlines move again.

At its heart, the Remediation Bill was about certainty. It aimed to move remediation away from voluntary pledges and developer goodwill, and towards something enforceable. The idea was simple enough – unsafe buildings would have to be fixed, and owners who failed to act could face penalties. For many leaseholders, that felt like overdue recognition that persuasion alone has not worked.

The delay matters because the existing system is uneven. Some developers and freeholders have engaged, funded works, and moved at pace. Others have done the bare minimum, or nothing at all, while residents remain stuck. Without legislation setting hard expectations, that imbalance continues.

From a building safety perspective, time is not neutral. Every year that passes with dangerous materials still in place increases risk, and prolongs the psychological strain on people living in these buildings. It also keeps the wider property market in limbo. Flats that cannot be remediated cannot be sold, re-mortgaged, or properly insured. Conveyancers, lenders and valuers are left working around uncertainty rather than clear rules.

On Cladding Matters, these conversations are never just about policy announcements. They are about what happens after the press release, and who carries the cost when progress stalls. Delays like this do not land evenly across the system – they land hardest on residents who have already waited years.

This week, Gareth Wax is in the chair, joined by Hamish McLay and Stephen Day. Stephen brings the lived experience of residents still navigating life in buildings with unresolved cladding issues, while Hamish continues to look at how these delays ripple through conveyancing, lending and the wider housing ecosystem.

It will be interesting to see whether the delay signals a change in direction, or simply a reshuffling of legislative priorities. Either way, the absence of a clear timetable leaves a vacuum.

For residents, “still waiting” has become a familiar phrase. Waiting for surveys. Waiting for funding. Waiting for contractors. Waiting for political momentum to translate into action.

Cladding Matters does not claim to have easy answers. What it does offer is space to talk honestly about where things have stalled, why that matters, and what the consequences look like on the ground – not just in Parliament, but in people’s homes.

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