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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to amend the contract for the Building Safety Fund to ensure applicants are able to communicate with journalists about repairs without prior approval of Government press officers.

The Building Safety Fund does not impose restrictions on leaseholders or residents in their private capacity as individual flat owners commenting on remediation projects or on Government policy on cladding and remediation, and neither does it prevent applicants from commenting on Government policy.

The Department has written to building owners who have signed agreements to make this clear. We intend to clarify the clause in future contracts to make it clearer that it does not apply to leaseholders and that they are free to speak freely to the media in a personal capacity.