Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the fires at Samuel Garside House in Barking Riverside, Beechmere retirement complex in Crewe and Sherbrooke Way in Worcester Park, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning the use of timber cladding in residential buildings.

On 29 November 2018, the Government introduced a ban of combustible materials in the external wall of buildings including blocks of flats, student accommodation and care homes with a storey more than 18 metres in height. The ban requires that all materials which become part of an external wall or specified attachment achieve European Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1, other than those covered by exemptions. There are currently no timber cladding panels able to achieve this performance.

As stated in the explanatory memorandum the Department intends to review the ban annually through monitoring arrangements and advice from bodies such as Building Regulations Advisory Committee for England.

The Department is currently in the process of reviewing the scope of the ban and will report in due course.