Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of time taken for the Building Safety Regulator to process building assessment certificate applications; and what steps his Department is taking to improve those times.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As yet, no building assessment certification applications have been submitted or assessed. From April, the Building Safety Regulator will begin the process of requesting building assessment certificate applications to be submitted.
The department has been working closely with the Regulator to ensure the processes are in place so that building assessment certificate applications can be processed in a timely manner.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the three properties threshold for qualifying lease status outlined in the Building Safety Act 2022 on the private rented sector.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Building Safety Act introduced leaseholder protections to ensure leaseholders are safe in their buildings. A threshold which set a balance between those purchasing properties primarily to live in and those who have made commercial or investment decisions, whether freeholders or leaseholders, was therefore needed.
There are protections in place for leaseholders who do not qualify. Building owners and landlords who built defective buildings of at least 11m or at least five storeys, or are associated with those responsible, must pay to remedy historical safety defects for both cladding and non-cladding defects. The principal residence of all leaseholders in relevant buildings will qualify for the protections. In addition, remediation contribution orders and the Defective Premises Act provide routes for leaseholders in relevant buildings to recover remediation costs from those responsible, whatever their qualifying status.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate his Department has made of the number of leaseholders that do not meet the criteria for qualifying lease threshold because they own more than three properties.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Building Safety Act introduced leaseholder protections to ensure leaseholders are safe in their buildings. A threshold which set a balance between those purchasing properties primarily to live in and those who have made commercial or investment decisions, whether freeholders or leaseholders, was therefore needed.
There are protections in place for leaseholders who do not qualify. Building owners and landlords who built defective buildings of at least 11m or at least five storeys, or are associated with those responsible, must pay to remedy historical safety defects for both cladding and non-cladding defects. The principal residence of all leaseholders in relevant buildings will qualify for the protections. In addition, remediation contribution orders and the Defective Premises Act provide routes for leaseholders in relevant buildings to recover remediation costs from those responsible, whatever their qualifying status.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he expects to publish the results of the consultation on the appointment of a building safety director to support resident-led organisations with their duties under the Building Safety Act.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The consultation on the secondary legislation relating to the building safety director proposals is open until 7 February 2023. We are analysing the responses as they come through and will consider all responses prior to finalising the policy.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the lending and valuation process undertaken by mortgage lender's on flats where (a) unsafe cladding has been remediated and (b) remediation work has been agreed but not yet begun.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Building Safety Act confirms that those at fault, not blameless leaseholders, will be the ones who pay to fix unsafe cladding. This removes risk for lenders and help restore common sense to the market. There should be no remaining barriers to lending on remediated buildings.
On 15 July the largest mortgage lenders confirmed that, subject to their normal policy requirements, they will be able to lend on any property that is part of a developer or government remediation scheme or properties that are protected by the new statutory protections, as evidenced by a qualifying lease certificate. This statement can be found here.
We continue to work with the industry to quickly operationalise these changes and expect the challenges faced by those struggling to buy and sell, including for those in flats where remediation has not yet begun, will be eased.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on helping to secure mortgage lending for buildings where cladding remediation work has been agreed upon but not yet begun.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Building Safety Act confirms that those at fault, not blameless leaseholders, will be the ones who pay to fix unsafe cladding. This removes risk for lenders and help restore common sense to the market. There should be no remaining barriers to lending on remediated buildings.
On 15 July the largest mortgage lenders confirmed that, subject to their normal policy requirements, they will be able to lend on any property that is part of a developer or government remediation scheme or properties that are protected by the new statutory protections, as evidenced by a qualifying lease certificate. This statement can be found here.
We continue to work with the industry to quickly operationalise these changes and expect the challenges faced by those struggling to buy and sell, including for those in flats where remediation has not yet begun, will be eased.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department made of the effectiveness of the implementation of the leaseholder deed of certificate.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department engaged with leaseholder groups and lenders on the leaseholder deed of certificate. This helped to ensure that the leaseholder deed of certificate is fit for purpose; the information requirements were designed to present a minimal burden to leaseholders, whilst being sufficiently robust to demonstrate their qualifying status and to also prevent fraud.
We have worked closely with leaseholder groups to produce guidance on the leaseholder deed of certificates and the overall leaseholder protections. This guidance can be found here.
The leaseholder deed of certificate is an essential tool in the protection of leaseholders from unaffordable bills for historical building safety defects. This deed of certificate enables leaseholders to self-determine whether or not they benefit from the protections with regard to remediation costs for unsafe cladding and non-cladding building safety defects, as well as costs for interim safety measures for their leasehold property. The leaseholder deed of certificate is an essential part of the protections as it allows leaseholders to demonstrate their ‘qualifying leaseholder’ status.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government’s proposals to ask developers who have pledged to remediate life critical fire safety works to sign a legally binding contract in relation to that remediation, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Home Builders Federation and (b) developers on the (i) scope and (ii) standard that contract will set for developer-funded remediation for unsafe buildings.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government published a draft of the remediation contract on 13 July 2022 and has received comments and held discussions about the draft with various parties including the Home Builders Federation and individual developers. We are working to finalise the wording of the contract, including with respect to the scope and standard of works to be performed. We will publish the final draft of the contract and have made clear that it will not deviate from the principles set out in the pledge.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on the housing market of the guidance note produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on 5 April 2021 entitled Valuation of properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department has been consistently clear that the lending and valuation industries have taken an overly cautious and risk-averse approach to building safety across the sector which has in turn impacted a sub-sector of the housing market. RICS are developing new guidance to support the valuation of properties with cladding, which they intend to consult on shortly, and which will reflect the protections contained within the Building Safety Act.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing people who bought a property with a Help to Buy loan which is affected by unsafe cladding to own a second home.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has provided £5.1 billion to remediate residential buildings over 18 metres, and recently announced contributions from developers estimated at £5 billion to help to fix the building safety crisis.
We have extended the exceptional criteria for subletting through the Help to Buy scheme to include homes affected by unsafe cladding. Guidance can be found in the following link https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-sublet-your-help-to-buy-home#when-you-may-be-allowed-to-sublet-your-entire-home.
There are no existing plans to change other aspects of the Help to Buy loan rules. However, we will keep these policies under review and recognise the unique circumstances of people affected by the cladding crisis.