Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government which types of defect data they collect when assessing the prevalence of non-cladding defects in residential buildings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department receives quarterly updates from Registered Providers of social housing on progress towards remediating buildings for which they are the Responsible Entity. This includes data on buildings with external and/or internal life-critical fire safety defects. In addition to unsafe cladding, relevant defects may include but are not limited to: compartmentation between dwellings or between dwellings and common parts; inadequate fire stopping or fire barriers; incorrect or missing fire escape signage; inadequate or defective fire detection and alarm systems; unprotected means of escape; and inadequate or defective firefighting equipment or installations.
The Department also receives quarterly updates from developers that have signed the developer remediation contract. This too includes data on buildings with external and/ or internal life-critical fire safety defects.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to ensuring that building owners, whether freeholders, commonhold associations or enfranchised leaseholders, who are required to remedy non ‘life-critical fire safety defects’ have an automatic remedy against the person responsible for the defective construction.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Interested parties including freeholders, leaseholders, commonhold associations or enfranchised leaseholders can potentially look to pursue a previous freeholder, developer and any associated company or person for remediation costs through a remediation contribution order. They also have the potential to pursue developers, contractors, or manufacturers where they are liable for defects which meant one or more dwelling in the building was not fit for habitation when the relevant works were completed.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that construction defects relating to fire safety in residential blocks have on the asset value of those buildings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department does not hold information on the impact of construction defects, relating to fire safety, on the asset value of whole buildings. However, I refer the Earl of Lytton to the answer given to Question UIN 22129 On 24 April 2024 on the selling price of individual flats.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of "life-critical defects" in relation to fire safety risks in buildings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The definition of “life-critical defects” is in Annex 1 of the developer remediation contract.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date they expect all buildings over 11 metres that require a work assessment to have had their assessments completed.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Developers that signed the developer remediation contract are required to assess and remediate relevant buildings as soon as reasonably practicable. The length of time it may reasonably take to assess and remediate a building will vary depending on factors including the scale of works required, co-operation of third parties in granting access to the building and finalising a works contract, and risk-based prioritisation by the developer of assessments and remedial works across the portfolio of buildings for which the developer is responsible.
The Government publishes monthly data on progress that developers have made towards assessing and remediating buildings for which they are responsible under the contract.
As at end of November 2023, fire risks assessments had been undertaken on 97.6% of all buildings reported 11m+ in height which are the responsibility of social housing providers, with a further 1.5% planned in the next nine months. As at end January 2024, developers had yet to obtain an assessment for 1,607 of the 4,614 11m+ buildings for which developers had accepted responsibility under the developer remediation contract.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the total number of buildings for which developers have accepted responsibility for remediation under their contract is now confirmed to be 4614, as indicated in the Developer Remediation Contract Data Release: January 2024.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As of 31 January 2024, developers that signed the remediation contract had accepted responsibility for 4,614 buildings. Of the 4,614 buildings covered by the contract, 1,501 buildings (33%) have been identified as having life-critical fire safety defects that require remediation under the terms of the contract.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was their rationale for the short duration of the call for evidence in relation to jointly owned leasehold properties, from Thursday 21 March to Friday 5 April.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne
The Government has discretion about the length of calls for evidence.
In this instance, the call ran from Thursday 21 March to Friday 5 April 2024 and as a result this was a short duration.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are currently working on an implementation strategy or transitional provisions for the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022.
Answered by Viscount Camrose
The Government remains committed to implementing all remaining provisions of Part 2 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 before the end of 2024. Departmental officials have been prioritising delivery of important measures to help deployment based on extensive engagement with operators, site providers and other stakeholders.
The policy team responsible for the implementation of the PSTI Act, amongst a number of other priorities, is currently staffed by five policy officials below Senior Civil Servant grade, who are supported by legal resource as required.
The team also covers other policy areas, including local authority engagement and street works issues relating to broadband.
The team provides updates to stakeholders on the implementation of the PSTI Act as part of regular, ongoing stakeholder engagement; and recently held two series of roundtable discussions for stakeholders with an interest in the implementation of the PSTI Act in July and September 2023. PSTI Act implementation is raised in many other stakeholder meetings as part of our wider agenda.
Due to the complex nature of the provisions of the PSTI Act that relate to the renewal of relevant leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and their interaction with the backdating of rent under that legislation, no final decision has been taken on transitional provisions. However, backdated payments were raised as a key concern during Parliamentary passage, and are something the Department is considering closely. The Department undertook to look carefully at the potential impacts of the backdating of rent when considering the commencement of these provisions and any transitional provisions, and this work is ongoing.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to lay statutory instruments under section 76 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 to introduce transitional provisions.
Answered by Viscount Camrose
The Government remains committed to implementing all remaining provisions of Part 2 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 before the end of 2024. Departmental officials have been prioritising delivery of important measures to help deployment based on extensive engagement with operators, site providers and other stakeholders.
The policy team responsible for the implementation of the PSTI Act, amongst a number of other priorities, is currently staffed by five policy officials below Senior Civil Servant grade, who are supported by legal resource as required.
The team also covers other policy areas, including local authority engagement and street works issues relating to broadband.
The team provides updates to stakeholders on the implementation of the PSTI Act as part of regular, ongoing stakeholder engagement; and recently held two series of roundtable discussions for stakeholders with an interest in the implementation of the PSTI Act in July and September 2023. PSTI Act implementation is raised in many other stakeholder meetings as part of our wider agenda.
Due to the complex nature of the provisions of the PSTI Act that relate to the renewal of relevant leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and their interaction with the backdating of rent under that legislation, no final decision has been taken on transitional provisions. However, backdated payments were raised as a key concern during Parliamentary passage, and are something the Department is considering closely. The Department undertook to look carefully at the potential impacts of the backdating of rent when considering the commencement of these provisions and any transitional provisions, and this work is ongoing.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings they have had with industry stakeholders about an implementation strategy and transitional provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022.
Answered by Viscount Camrose
The Government remains committed to implementing all remaining provisions of Part 2 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 before the end of 2024. Departmental officials have been prioritising delivery of important measures to help deployment based on extensive engagement with operators, site providers and other stakeholders.
The policy team responsible for the implementation of the PSTI Act, amongst a number of other priorities, is currently staffed by five policy officials below Senior Civil Servant grade, who are supported by legal resource as required.
The team also covers other policy areas, including local authority engagement and street works issues relating to broadband.
The team provides updates to stakeholders on the implementation of the PSTI Act as part of regular, ongoing stakeholder engagement; and recently held two series of roundtable discussions for stakeholders with an interest in the implementation of the PSTI Act in July and September 2023. PSTI Act implementation is raised in many other stakeholder meetings as part of our wider agenda.
Due to the complex nature of the provisions of the PSTI Act that relate to the renewal of relevant leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and their interaction with the backdating of rent under that legislation, no final decision has been taken on transitional provisions. However, backdated payments were raised as a key concern during Parliamentary passage, and are something the Department is considering closely. The Department undertook to look carefully at the potential impacts of the backdating of rent when considering the commencement of these provisions and any transitional provisions, and this work is ongoing.