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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what criteria his Department used to assess applications to the Waking Watch Relief Fund for buildings with flammable cladding.

Guidance on eligibility criteria for the Waking Watch Relief Fund is published on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waking-watch-relief-fund and for the Waking Watch Replacement Fund at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waking-watch-replacement-fund.

We have not made an assessment of the costs incurred by leaseholders who installed fire alarms before the eligibility date for the Waking Watch Relief Fund. However, data on average Waking Watch costs for approved Waking Watch Relief Fund (WWRF) applications is published in the Building Safety Programme data release. The latest data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/aluminium-composite-material-cladding#acm-remediation-data. This shows average cost of Waking Watch is estimated at £167 per month per dwelling.

We recognise that Waking Watch is a costly burden for too many leaseholders which is why Government is providing over £60 million to support the installation of alarms in buildings to replace costly Waking Watch measures. The Waking Watch Replacement fund will pay for alarms in all buildings where a Waking Watch is in place where those costs are passed onto leaseholders. The fund builds on the success of the Waking Watch Relief Fund which is funding alarms in over 320 buildings. The new fund will pay for alarms where installation commenced on or after 10 January 2022 – the date the fund was announced. The Waking Watch Relief Fund paid for alarms installed after 17 December 2020.

Government funding does recognise that Waking Watch measures have been in place in too many buildings for too long with leaseholders unfairly picking up these costs. We have considered how we can use limited public funding to best protect leaseholders from the continued burden of costly Waking Watch measures. In this case we have come to the view that government funding must be used to incentivise the right behaviour. That is the installation of alarms which is consistent with industry led guidance and best practice. Funding must, therefore, be used to reduce or end the reliance on Waking Watch measures by installing alarms in as many buildings as possible so that as many leaseholders as possible can be free of these costs. That is why we are unable to cover retrospective costs beyond those dates.