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 Department's press release, Government announces it will fully fund unsafe cladding removal in social housing, published on 16 May 2018, what assessment he has made of the effect on residents in mixed-use developments who are (a) leaseholders or (b) are in shared ownership.

The Government will fully fund the removal and replacement of dangerous Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding on buildings owned by councils and housing associations, with costs estimated at £400 million. Some of these buildings will contain leaseholders and shared ownership properties. In the social sector, all of those local authorities and housing associations with whom we are in discussion with have indicated that they are choosing not to pass on the costs of the remediation of cladding systems to individual flat owners within their buildings. The Secretary of State made it clear that he considers this is the right approach.

In the private sector, building owners are responsible for making buildings safe. We have been clear we think they or the developers of the buildings should pay and not pass costs on to leaseholders, either funding the work themselves or looking at alternative routes such as insurance claims, warranties or action to ensure those responsible for erecting unsafe cladding pay. Leaseholders can challenge the costs in courts if they are unreasonable.