King’s Speech 2026: Construction Implications of the Remediation Bill and The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill

Experts Rachel Murray-Smith, Helen Arthur, and Juli Lau consider the Remediation Bill and The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill and what this may mean for construction.

The King’s Speech 2026, read together with the accompanying background briefing notes, outlines the government’s proposed legislative programme for the new parliamentary session and includes a number of measures of particular significance to the construction sector.

Remediation Bill

Among the legislative announcements was the Remediation Bill (the “Bill”), which has its origins in the government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan (“RAP”), published in December 2024. The RAP was introduced as a response, in part, to the slow pace of cladding remediation across England. The RAP focuses on three core objectives: fixing buildings faster, identifying all affected buildings over 11 metres, and improving outcomes for residents. With the Bill forming part of the King’s Speech, the Bill reflects the government’s continued focus on addressing the cladding crisis, through accelerating delivery and closing gaps in the existing regime.

As set out in the accompanying briefing notes, the Bill is intended to “fix long‑standing gaps in the law and end years of inaction”, ensuring that those responsible for unsafe buildings can no longer delay or avoid remediation.

In particular, the measures seek to remove technical legal barriers that have historically prevented developers and contractors from pursuing construction product manufacturers, thereby reinforcing the “polluter pays” principle within the building safety framework.

Central to the Bill is the introduction of a new statutory duty to remediate, requiring those responsible for building safety to identify, assess and fix unsafe buildings. This is backed by strengthened enforcement powers and the prospect of criminal sanctions in the most serious cases.

There is also a focus on the need for greater consistency and oversight, including mandating how external wall assessments are undertaken and establishing a comprehensive register of 11-18m buildings. These measures are designed not only to accelerate remediation but to address the information deficits and fragmented practices that have hindered progress to date.

The Bill will also provide for a “remediation backstop” equipping Homes England to step in and carry out works where the responsible party ignores their duties. Again, this will be backed by severe sanctions with potential sale of their interest.

Although the accompanying briefing notes do not specify statutory deadlines for completion of remediation works, the RAP government update published in July 2025 identifies two key delivery milestones:

• Landlords of buildings 18m or more in height with unsafe cladding to complete remediation by the end of 2029; and
• Landlords of buildings 11-18m in height to complete remediation by the end of 2031

The strengthening of regulatory powers is reflected in industry commentary, with the Chair of the Building Safety Regulator Board noting that “The Remediation Bill will give us additional tools we need to compel reluctant landlords to take action to remediate their buildings and remove unsafe cladding, or face severe sanctions.” This underlines the government’s intention to intervene more directly where remediation has stalled. However, specialist contractors and expertise are already at capacity and so the focus on skills and retention of expertise becomes ever more acute if the deadlines are to be realised.

The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill or Commercial Payments Bill

The King’s Speech also outlined proposals to bring forward the Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill (“Late Payment Bill”), which has since been introduced in the House of Lords on 19^th May 2026 as the Commercial Payments Bill.

The government consulted on late payments during the summer last year, closing in October 2025 and announced in March 2026 that in response to the consultation it would be taking forward plans to introduce legislation. As outlined in the King’s Speech accompanying briefing notes, the Late Payment Bill is intended to address the ongoing issue of late payment practices impacting small businesses. The briefing confirms that the Late Payment Bill will introduce measures to “improve the flow of cash through supply chains” and strengthen the existing framework by enhancing the powers of the Small Business Commissioner, enabling more effective enforcement against firms that fail to pay suppliers on time. It also signals a greater emphasis on transparency, with reforms designed to improve reporting on payment practices and expose poor behaviour. The proposals will therefore mean greater focus on internal audit processes and procedures to ensure compliance.

The Late Payments Bill forms part of a broader effort to support SME growth by improving cashflow certainty and holding larger organisations to account. The reforms are aimed at ensuring small businesses are paid promptly and fairly. This is against the backdrop of the government acknowledging that late payment costs the UK economy £11 billion a year and contributes to 38 UK businesses closing every day. To help reduce this burden, the Late Payments Bill will impose maximum payment terms of 60 days on larger businesses paying smaller suppliers, enforce mandatory interest for late payments (8% above Bank of England base rate), and introduce a time limit for raising invoice disputes before payment is due.

Most notably, the Late Payments Bill will “take targeted action on the construction sector” to ban the practice of deducting and withholding retention payments under construction contracts. Whilst the Late Payments Bill will apply only to UK-to-UK business transactions (and do not affect global supply chains or international trade), the proposed reforms point towards a material change in market practice, with corresponding implications for risk allocation across tiers of contracting and a strong focus on building more resilience for SMEs.

Banning retentions in construction contracts could have far-reaching consequences. Retentions have long been used as a mechanism to ensure contractors return to remedy defects and complete outstanding works. Removing that mechanism could create a risk of increased defects, incomplete works, and greater exposure for employers and upstream contractors. It may also lead to higher overall project costs.

For our employer clients, the practical effect is likely to be a greater need to rely on alternative contractual protections, including more robust security packages, and tighter administration of defects liability provisions.

We will share our further thoughts on this as the Commercial Payments Bill progresses to second reading and debate.

Our construction team regularly advises clients across the full project lifecycle including advising on procurement strategy, building safety, contract risk and dispute avoidance.

Rachel Murray-Smith is a Partner, Helen Arthur is a Senior Professional Support Lawyer and Juli Lau is a Partner at Sharpe Pritchard LLP.

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This article is for general awareness only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this page was first published. If you would like further advice and assistance in relation to any issue raised in this article, please contact us by telephone or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..