Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish an estimated timescale for the completion of remediation work on all multi-residential buildings of all heights with dangerous cladding.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has rightly targeted funding at the removal of unsafe cladding on higher rise buildings (over 18 metres), where the risk is greater and the cost of cladding remediation is higher. It is our strong expectation that building owners will have completed ACM remedial works on all high-rise residential buildings by the end of 2021. We also expect owners of buildings with unsafe non-ACM buildings systems supported by the Building Safety Fund to be started on site by September 2021. Our monthly published updates on ACM remediation progress and Building Safety Fund statistics can be found at: www.gov.uk/guidance/building-safety-programme.
We will announce further details on the additional £3.5 billion in funding announced on 10 February, and how it will work alongside existing funding schemes.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish in full the evidential basis behind his decision to disqualify buildings under 18 metres from the (a) Building Safety Fund and (b) Waking Watch Relief Fund; and which industry experts were consulted ahead of that decision.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are taking decisive action to improve building safety and prioritising unsafe cladding which is a higher risk and can act as a fire accelerant – and is a greater risk in higher rise blocks. Home Office analysis of fire and rescue service statistics shows buildings between 18 and 30 metres are four times as likely to suffer a fire with fatalities or serious casualties than apartment buildings in general. 18 metres is also the height at which building standards become more restrictive in England and presumptions about firefighting tactics change
It is right that we prioritise action on higher rise buildings (over 18 metres) where risk to multiple households is greater when fire spreads. It is therefore the height criterion we have chosen for the Building Safety Fund and the Waking Watch Relief Fund. For the purposes of the Building Safety Fund we are allowing a tolerance of 30cm to this measurement so where there is appropriate evidence that a building measures 17.7 metres or above it will be eligible in regard to its height. This is to allow for measurement error, the potential for ground levels to have varied from the original design and the settlement of the building over time.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish in full the evidential basis for the 18 metre threshold criteria required to apply for Government grants for the removal of dangerous cladding.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are taking decisive action to improve building safety and prioritising unsafe cladding which is a higher risk and can act as a fire accelerant – and is a greater risk in higher rise blocks. Home Office analysis of fire and rescue service statistics shows buildings between 18 and 30 metres are four times as likely to suffer a fire with fatalities or serious casualties than apartment buildings in general. 18 metres is also the height at which building standards become more restrictive in England and presumptions about firefighting tactics change
It is right that we prioritise action on higher rise buildings (over 18 metres) where risk to multiple households is greater when fire spreads. It is therefore the height criterion we have chosen for the Building Safety Fund and the Waking Watch Relief Fund. For the purposes of the Building Safety Fund we are allowing a tolerance of 30cm to this measurement so where there is appropriate evidence that a building measures 17.7 metres or above it will be eligible in regard to its height. This is to allow for measurement error, the potential for ground levels to have varied from the original design and the settlement of the building over time.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish details of (a) how and (b) when the loan scheme announced in February 2021 for the costs of remediating buildings under 18 metres with dangerous cladding can be accessed by leaseholders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 10 February, we announced a generous finance scheme, which will provide leaseholders in buildings of 11-18m with access to finance for cladding remediation costs, and a commitment that their monthly cladding repayment costs will not exceed £50 a month.
We will publish more information soon.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has undertaken an assessment of the potential effect of the loan scheme announced on 10 February 2021 for remediating buildings under 18 metres with dangerous cladding on the future sale of affected properties.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 10 February, we announced a generous finance scheme, which will provide leaseholders in buildings of 11-18m with access to finance for cladding remediation costs, and a commitment that their monthly cladding repayment costs will not exceed £50 a month.
The package of measures that we announced will not only provide greater certainty to leaseholders but also to mortgage lenders and the housing market and will help to restore the effective lending, purchasing and selling of properties.
We will publish more information on how the finance scheme will work as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will undertake a comprehensive review into the number of multi-residential buildings under 18 metres which require fire safety remediation work in England.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
MHCLG has begun a pilot data collection project for 11-18m residential buildings to identify materials in use and to inform the design of a wider national 11-18m data collection exercise, and we will be publishing further details.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with developers, investors and building owners on their covering the remediation costs for removing and replacing dangerous cladding without passing those costs on to leaseholders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department has ongoing engagement with developers and building owners of private sector high-rise residential buildings with unsafe cladding. This has led to the remediation of over half of high-rise residential buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding being funded by the developer, freeholder or through warranty claims, without passing the costs onto leaseholders. Furthermore, the Private Sector ACM Remediation Fund and the Building Safety Fund for the remediation of buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding both require applicants to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to recover the costs of replacing the unsafe cladding from those responsible through insurance claims, warranties or legal action.