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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure residents evacuated from residential buildings deemed to be unsafe are given suitable temporary accommodation.

Building owners are legally responsible for making sure their buildings are safe. Should the residents of an unsafe building need to be evacuated, the Government expects building owners to provide suitable alternative accommodation until residents can return home, at the building owner's expense.

Building owners do not have unqualified rights to evacuate their buildings. If a building owner needs to evacuate residents from a building, they must comply with the terms of the lease. If the building owner does not have express rights under the lease to evacuate a building, they must seek consent from the residents for the evacuation and we expect building owners to agree the terms for evacuating with residents before they leave.

Should a building owner unlawfully evacuate a building, residents may be entitled to damages from the building owner. The building owner may also be committing a criminal offence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Local authorities also have a legal duty to step in as a last resort and provide alternative accommodation should residents be at risk of becoming homeless.

In terms of Cardinal Lofts, the Department is closely monitoring the situation, and I am being kept updated. Officials have held meetings with Railpen (the owner of Grey GR), Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service and Ipswich Borough Council.

Officials have stressed the importance of residents being provided with temporary accommodation that meets their needs and have made clear that the Government expects this accommodation to be provided, at Railpen's expense, until residents can return home safely.