Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department collects on the number of buildings where residents have been decanted due to building safety concerns.

Decants arise in one of two ways – either in a planned way as part of a schedule of works or as an emergency situation due to emerging safety concerns. Not all decants are reported to the department, particularly if they are planned. Emergency decants are a local operational matter led either by the entity responsible for the building or local regulators. Where emergency decants are reported to the department we work with local regulators and responsible entities to ensure residents are placed at the centre of decision making by all parties. In the past 12 months’ six emergency decants have been reported to the department, three of which took place as a result of enforcement action. The department also works collaboratively with local regulators and other parties to prevent decants from taking place and in the past 12 months this work has allowed over 1500 households to remain in their homes safely.

When local authorities take enforcement action against a mid or high-rise residential building the department asks the local authority to voluntarily upload details to a designated data platform. Local authorities share details of buildings subject to enforcement under powers within the 2004 Housing Act, including inspections, information gathering notices and statutory notices requiring action (such as improvement and prohibition notices). Local authorities can also share data pertaining to remediation orders and remediation contribution orders under the Building Safety Act 2022. We publish enforcement information as part of the monthly remediation data release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/building-safety-remediation.

The department does not collect comprehensive data on the number of buildings requiring a waking watch due to enforcement for building safety failures, nor where the costs of the waking watch fall as a result of enforcement action taken by local regulators.