Guidance

Responsible Actors Scheme: enrolment guide

Updated 15 February 2024

Applies to England

This guide explains the enrolment process to the Responsible Actors Scheme.

1. What you can do now

The Secretary of State has started to invite developers who are likely to be eligible to join the Responsible Actors Scheme. If you have received an invitation to the Scheme, then you should follow the instructions within the Secretary of State’s invitation.

If you have not yet received an invitation to join the Scheme, you may still be able to join the Scheme. This page sets out how to do so.

The government encourages any developer that developed unsafe residential buildings of 11 metres or over in height in England over the 30 years to 4 April 2022 to come forward as soon as possible and commit to remediate life-critical fire safety defects. Joining the Scheme early will allow members to have their responsible behaviour recognised by having their name added to a the Responsible Actors Scheme membership list that will be added to gov.uk over coming weeks, as companies complete the process formally to join the Scheme.

2. Eligibility for the Scheme

You can prepare to join the Scheme by referring to the regulations and considering the eligibility of your company or a company within your group. An overview of eligibility criteria can be found in the Responsible Actors Scheme: key features document. Full details of eligibility and other aspects of the Scheme can be found in the Responsible Actors Scheme Regulations..

All eligible developers who join the Scheme must enter into a self-remediation contract with the Secretary of State of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if they have not already done so, and commit to meeting all other conditions of membership. More information on the self-remediation contract can be found on gov.uk.

The Scheme is open to developers who have developed unsafe buildings in England and who are not registered providers of social housing (or their wholly owned subsidiaries), wherever they are registered or based; however, when you get in touch with us it would be helpful if you would provide contact details for your UK office or subsidiary where you have one.

3. Applying to the Scheme

There are 3 pathways to become a member of the Responsible Actors Scheme.

3.1 Invitation by the Secretary of State to apply for membership (Regulation 13)

Starting with eligible companies that have already signed a developer remediation contract, the Secretary of State is sending invitations to developers deemed likely to be eligible to join the Scheme under Regulation 13. This includes developers who meet the residential property developer test set out in Regulation 7 and developers who have developed two or more buildings assessed as eligible for government remediation funding as set out in Regulation 8. In each case, your company must not be a Registered Provider of Social Housing or wholly owned by a Registered Provider of Social Housing Regulation 6 and will need to meet the profits condition set out in Regulation 11.

The invitation will set out the grounds on which the developer is considered eligible to join and the steps a developer needs to take in order to join the Scheme or to make representations setting out why they believe they are not eligible.

If you are part of a company group, the invitation will provide further information on what to do. For example, where the Secretary of State is aware that more than one entity in the group is eligible for the Scheme, the Secretary of State will designate which group entity is invited to join the Scheme within the invitation.

If your company has received an invitation from the Secretary of State, then the regulations provide 60 days either to join the Scheme or to make representations supported by evidence that the eligibility criteria are not met. If it is determined that your company is eligible after those representations are considered, you will be expected to join the Scheme within 30 days or you will face the prohibitions set out in the Responsible Actors Scheme Regulations. If the statutory prohibitions are imposed on a person, they may also apply to some or all the entities associated with that person. The regulations provide for limited exceptions from the prohibitions, and more information about these exceptions can be found in the Responsible Actors Scheme plain English guide.

3.2 Request for an invitation to apply for membership (Regulation 15)

If you are a developer who meets the eligibility conditions for being invited to join the scheme, but have not yet been invited to do so, you may want to put yourself forward for membership. If your company is not a Registered Provider of Social Housing or wholly owned by a Registered Provider of Social Housing Regulation 6 and meets Regulation 7 (as a residential property developer) and/or Regulation 8 (buildings eligible for remediation funds), as described above and you would like to be invited to join at this stage, please tell us.

You can contact DLUHC at Building.Safety@levellingup.gov.uk explaining why you believe that you may be eligible under Regulation 7 and/or Regulation 8.  We will then contact you and, if it is determined that you are likely to be eligible then you will be invited to join the Scheme.

3.3 Applications for volunteers (Regulation 16)

If your company is not eligible to be invited by the Secretary of State under Regulation 7 or Regulation 8 but you want to volunteer to join the Scheme, you can apply provided you satisfy the conditions set out in Regulation 9 (Voluntary Eligibility).

Any company may volunteer to join if it (or group entities as defined under the regulations) developed or refurbished at least one residential building of 11 metres or over in height in England over the 30 years to 4 April 2022 that would require remediation under the Developer Remediation Contract, and you are willing to enter into the developer remediation contract and join the Scheme.

If you wish to join Responsible Actors Scheme voluntarily, please contact DLUHC at Building.Safety@levellingup.gov.uk explaining how you meet the conditions set out in Regulation 9.

If the Secretary of State determines that you are eligible to join as a volunteer, the Secretary of State will formally invite you to join.

4. Existing developer remediation contract signatories

For the avoidance of doubt, the developer remediation contract between the Secretary of State of the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and a Participant Developer who entered into the contract remains in force as a legally binding private law contract irrespective of whether a company that is not deemed eligible under Regulations 7 or 8 applies to join under Regulation 9 or is eligible to do so.

After reading this guidance, if you have further questions, please contact DLUHC at Building.Safety@levellingup.gov.uk.