Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 25 July 2018 to Question 164527, how many non-high-rise care home buildings that are below 18 metres have rainscreen cladding.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government’s Building Safety Programme is tracking the remediation of residential buildings over 18 metres with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding systems. We are not aware of any high-rise care homes in our dataset.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of re-cladding on the effectiveness of fire breaks.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Independent Expert Panel will provide advice to the government on any immediate measures needed to make buildings safe following the Grenfell Tower fire. It is a landlord’s responsibility to ensure that people are kept safe. If building owners decide that they need to re-clad their buildings, this building work will need to be compliant with the requirements of the Building Regulations, including the requirements relating to the prevention of spread of fire over the external walls.
Guidance on the provision of fire breaks (cavity barriers) is provided in section 9 of Approved Document B.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of re-cladding on the combustibility of insulation.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
On 6 July we published details of further tests to be carried out as the next step in helping landlords to ensure the safety of their buildings. These large scale tests will help establish how different types of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels in combination with different types of insulation behave in a fire. Further detail about the next testing stage can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expert-panel-recommends-further-tests-on-cladding-and-insulation
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his oral contribution of 3 July 2017, Official Report, column 924, on guidance to local authorities and housing associations, what specific guidance has been given in respect of insulation.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department wrote to local authority and housing associations landlords on 18 June, setting out immediate actions that should be taken to identify residential tower blocks over 18 metres in height with aluminium type external cladding. The Department wrote again on 19 June to set out the process they should follow to submit samples of aluminium composite material cladding for testing.
The Secretary of State wrote on 22 June to update all Members of Parliament on the Grenfell Tower disaster and the action we are taking in response, and he will provide regular updates as further information is released; these are being made available on the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/grenfell-tower
On 30 June, we published a note at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-note-on-safety-checks-and-testing This note confirms the advice in those letters to local authorities, with further specific information about the tests being carried out.
On 6 July we published details of further tests to be carried out as the next step in helping landlords to ensure the safety of their buildings. These large scale tests will help establish how different types of ACM panels in combination with different types of insulation behave in a fire. Further detail about the next testing stage can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expert-panel-recommends-further-tests-on-cladding-and-insulation
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much financial support his Department will provide to local authorities for assessing the fire safety of insulation.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The tests currently being carried out are focussed on the combustibility of material in cladding made from Aluminium Composite Material. Where those materials have failed that test, housing providers have had instructions to review all fire safety arrangements in the relevant property, and to check insulation and other materials in the wall construction. Where work is necessary to ensure the fire safety of social housing, we will ensure that lack of financial resources will not prevent it going ahead.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote investment in former coalfield communities.
Answered by Andrew Percy
In England, local investment is mainly determined by Local Enterprise Partnerships based on their local economic growth priorities and funded through programmes such as City Deals, Devolution Deals, the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zones.
My officials continue to work with the Coalfields Regeneration Trust to support former coalfields communities.
Local growth is a devolved issue in the rest of the UK.