Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to identify buildings with dangerous cladding.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government has been clear that more must be done to accelerate the pace of remediation of unsafe buildings across the country.

After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Government prioritised identifying and providing funding for the highest risk buildings with unsafe cladding. Fire and rescue services and local authorities conducted a risk review of high-rise buildings over 18 metres in height, and building owners were required to register high-rise buildings with the department and apply for government funding to remove dangerous cladding.

The Building Safety Act 2022 establishes a new regulatory regime for high-rise buildings, which requires all residential buildings above 18 metres or seven storeys to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator by October 2023. The regulator has powers to pursue any building owner who fails to comply, including prosecuting for non-compliance.

In 2022, the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) was launched, to meet the cost of addressing life safety fire risks associated with cladding in buildings over 11 metres. Eligible building owners can apply for this scheme, and leaseholders can utilise the ‘Tell us tool’ to self-refer their building: Tell us about life-safety fire risks on the external wall system of your building - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The department is working at pace to identify buildings eligible for funding that are not coming forward. We are utilising specialist data sources and knowledge from local regulators to identify buildings eligible for funding.

The Deputy Prime Minister wrote to mayoral authorities on the 13 September to support and empower them to deliver plans, which use their convening powers, relationships and local knowledge to accelerate where buildings are not remediating quickly. The identification of buildings with unsafe cladding falls within the remit of this initiative. The Deputy Prime Minister will set out further steps to increase the pace of remediation this Autumn.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support the residents of buildings with unsafe cladding.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 8547 on 28 October 2024.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of people off work due to long term sickness.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing. We want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. We want people to avoid poverty, and for this to happen we must ensure that disabled people and people with health conditions have the opportunity to work and save for as long as they wish and are able to. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group, so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, and have range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.

Measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.

We have also launched WorkWell services in 15 integrated care board areas across England from October this year. WorkWell seeks to help people with health-related barriers to start and get on in work.

Employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to thrive as part of the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers, and the Disability Confident scheme. Further information on the digital information service is available at the following link:

https://www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/support-with-employee-health-and-disability

As part of the Get Britain Working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.

The Autumn Budget 2024 included more than £2.7 billion in 2025/26 for the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver individualised employment support programmes and reduce health related inactivity, helping the Government meet its ambition to support more people into work. This includes more than £800 million for disability employment support and £240 million to tackle the root causes of inactivity through the Get Britain Working White Paper.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help tackle late payments to small and medium-sized businesses.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Last month we announced a package of new measures to tackle late payments and long payment terms for small businesses and the self-employed.

We will legislate in this parliamentary session to require that large companies include payment performance in their annual reports, driving up transparency on how they pay their suppliers.

We will also be consulting on potential primary legislation measures and launching a new Fair Payment Code that rewards companies who pay their suppliers quickly and fairly.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent progress he has made on meeting his target to have a zero carbon electricity system by 2030.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Since July the Government has taken rapid action towards meeting our mission for clean power by 2030. We’ve ended the onshore wind ban, approved enough solar to power hundreds of thousands of homes, secured a record-breaking 131 renewables projects and set up Great British Energy in Aberdeen.

The Government recently commissioned the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to provide practical advice on achieving a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030. The Government received NESO’s advice on 5 November, which will inform the 2030 Clean Power Action Plan, due for publication by the end of the year.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve neighbourhood policing in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

This includes getting thousands of neighbourhood police personnel back on the beat, ensuring local people have a named officer who they can turn to when things go wrong, and cracking down on the street crime, shop theft and anti-social behaviour which has made communities feel less safe for far too long.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to tackle unaffordable and unfair ground rents in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government are committed to tackling unregulated and unaffordable existing ground rents. We will set out further details on this in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to work with Community Land Trusts in providing affordable housing as part of the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Community Land Trusts can apply to our delivery partners Homes England and the Greater London Authority for funding through the Affordable Housing Programme. If the development includes low cost rented tenures, they will also need to be a registered provider of social housing to receive funding or work in partnership with a registered provider.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to deliver affordable housing through the Affordable Homes Programme in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) England.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 11383 on 31 October 2024.