Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to support people in Wales with incorrectly installed cavity wall insulation.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This is a devolved matter.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the insurance industry on premiums for buildings affected by fire and building safety issues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government continues to work with the insurance industry to press for fair and proportionate premiums for leaseholders living in buildings with fire safety issues.
The Government expects the industry to launch their risk sharing scheme as a matter of urgency, and departmental officials and I continue to correspond and meet the Association of British Insurers and industry to make this clear.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many developments affected by fire and building safety issues have undergone remediation works funded by developers; and what estimate he has made of the total value of those works as of 20 December 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Information and data on the remediation progress of high-rise (over 18 metres) residential and publicly-owned buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems, including information on the source of funding for remediation works, is available in the Building Safety Programme data release here.
Information on buildings that have received or were due to receive government funding from the Building Safety Fund, Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund, or Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund, but will now be funded by developers is being collated.
The developer remediation contract is being finalised and will be published shortly.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on ensuring UK-wide developers fulfil commitments to (a) remediate and (b) pay for historic fire and building safety defects.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities discussed respective approaches to building safety with Ministers from all governments on 24 May 2022. Officials have continued regular engagement on shared building safety issues. An update on progress will be discussed at the next meeting of the Interministerial Group.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he had with the Welsh Government in the last month prior to his statement on Building Safety on 10 January 2022.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Secretary of State has fortnightly calls with the First Ministers of the devolved governments, including the First Minister of the Welsh Government to discuss a wide range of issues. The Department also has a close-working relationship with the devolved administrations on building safety. Officials meet with representatives of all three devolved administrations to discuss building safety fortnightly.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implementation of new guidance on the requirements for EWS1 forms by UK lenders that came into effect from 5 April 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
MHCLG estimates that nearly 500,000 leaseholders should not require an EWS1 form, following the new EWS1 valuation guidance from RICS, published in March 2021. Most major lenders, representing roughly 80% of the mortgage market, have said that they will adopt the RICS guidance, or already take a markedly less risk-averse approach.
Recent data from one major lender suggests that an EWS1 already exists for 50% of mortgage applications where one is requested, and we are working with industry to ensure this picture only improves.
The Government continues to challenge industry on the use of the EWS1 process. We have requested data from industry so that we can understand how the RICS guidance is being applied, and the implications of the process for mortgage applications.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, under which legislation he plans to introduce the Gateway 2 developer levy he announced on 10 February 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The levy will be implemented through the forthcoming Building Safety Bill.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the £3.5 billion he announced on 10 February 2021 will be funded from (a) from the Gateway 2 developer Levy, (b) existing revenues and (c) revenue from the new tax scheduled for the residential property development sector from 2022.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We will set out further details of the levy and tax.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
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 9 February 2021 to Question 146897 on Buildings: Insulation, whether the additional trained assessors will be working across the UK or England only.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
To speed up valuations where EWS1 forms are justified, the Government is providing nearly £700,000 funding to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to train up to 2,000 more assessors in 2021. The training is available to relevant professionals across the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his announcement of 11 February 2021, Government to bring an end to unsafe cladding with multi-billion pound intervention, whether funding has been re-allocated from other Departmental spending priorities to support the policies on fire and building safety announced on 11 February 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government announced an additional £3.5 billion to provide certainty that leaseholders in high rise residential buildings will face no cost for cladding remediation works, plus a generous financing scheme to ensure all leaseholders in medium and high rise blocks face no costs or very low costs if cladding remediation is needed.
To ensure the industry contributes towards these costs, the Government will introduce a “Gateway 2” developer levy that will be implemented through the Building Safety Bill and a new tax will be introduced for the United Kingdom’s residential property development sector in 2022 which will raise at least £2 billion over a decade to help pay for cladding remediation costs.
We will be providing further details of the grant, the loan, the levy and the tax.