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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of buildings of three storeys or less which need to undergo an external wall survey process before dwellings can be sold or re-mortgaged.

The EWS1 process is not a Government or regulatory requirement. Whether an EWS1 is needed is determined by lenders and the professionals valuing a building - not all lenders ask for an EWS1. The Department has come to an agreement with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that flats in blocks without cladding do not need an EWS1 form. Buildings under 18m should not fall into the EWS1 process, unless in exceptional circumstances – usually relating to the proportion of cladding on the building. The Department has not made an estimate of the number of buildings of three storeys or fewer that have been brought into the current EWS1 process. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is working with wider industry, including lenders, on new guidance for surveyors which will make clearer the circumstances when EWS1 valuation forms are, and are not, to be requested.