Today I called on the Prime Minister to reassure the city’s leaseholders that action will be taken to deal with long-standing fire safety issues.

As many of you know, this constituency has the highest number of high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding in Hampshire. That’s why I have campaigned to speed up action for leaseholders who are affected by unsafe cladding and other fire safety issues and last month met the housing minister Alex Norris to raise the plight of constituents directly.

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, I asked the Prime Minister:

“Thousands of my constituents across Southampton Itchen have had to put up with years of misery because of unsafe fire protection in their own homes, developers dragging their feet and leaseholders having to foot the bill for mistakes they didn’t make.             

“Does the Prime Minister agree that enough is enough, and it’s time for developers to make all homes safe?

“And will he reassure leaseholders – who bought their homes in good faith – that this Government has their back?”

In response, the Prime Minister thanked me for raising the ‘important issue’ and said:

“Too many buildings are still unsafe and the speed of delivery has been far too slow. Our action plan sets out measures to identify buildings at risk and fix them faster. And my message, Mr Speaker, is clear: the funding is there to fix this, and there is no excuse not to deliver for residents.”

Last month Darren I raised concerns in Parliament about 46 residential blocks in Southampton Itchen that are still affected by unsafe cladding, leaving residents stuck in “unsellable flats”.

I have previously criticised the slow pace of progress from developers, telling Parliament in December that “peace of mind is not yet felt by many residents in my constituency, where an unacceptably high number still live in buildings affected by cladding or fire safety risks. Some remediation has happened, and that is to be welcomed, but in too many places it is not happening fast enough, or leaseholders are paying the price.”

In December the government set out tough new targets to fix unsafe buildings in England as part of a new Remediation Acceleration Plan.  The plan introduces new measures to get buildings fixed quicker, ensure rogue freeholders are held to account, and puts the end in sight for affected residents.  It will – for the first time – set clear target dates for making buildings safe and will propose to introduce significantly tougher penalties for refusing to act.

This is a step in the right direction and I’ll continue to fight to secure a resolution for constituents.