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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of councils' legal (a) powers and (b) duties to compel the testing of privately-owned high rise blocks with suspected unsafe cladding.

Local housing authorities have obligations to ensure that housing in their areas is of an acceptable standard. They can take enforcement action against owners of buildings in their area that are not acting responsibly in respect of hazards, and we want them to use these powers to ensure residents are safe.

To support the identification of private sector residential buildings over 18 metres with potentially unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding, on 17 May, I issued a direction to all Local Housing Authorities to pay particular regard to cladding-related issues when reviewing housing in their areas.