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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what financial support is available to people with disabilities who live in buildings with fire safety faults to install evacuation aids to facilitate safe evacuation in event of a fire.

Under the Building Safety Programme, the Government has intervened with an unprecedented over £5 billion investment in building safety, to fully fund the remediation of unsafe cladding for leaseholders in all residential buildings 18 metres and over in England. Lower rise buildings, with a lower risk to safety, will also gain new protection from costs of cladding removal with a generous new scheme offered to buildings between 11 and 18 metres in height. We have also launched a £30 million fund to install fire alarms in high-rise buildings, relieving residents of waking watch costs.

The Government-funded Disabled Facilities Grant can contribute to the capital cost of adapting an eligible persons home, including to facilitate access in and out of their building or around the common parts of their building, subject to a needs assessment, eligibility criteria, and a means test. This includes in buildings at risk of fire safety faults.

The Fire Safety Order (FSO) applies to the non-domestic parts of multi occupied residential premises. Responsible Persons (who may be building owners) under the FSO have a duty to take such general fire precautions as are reasonably required to ensure the safety of premises. Such precautions include measures to reduce the risk of fire on the premises, measures relating to means of escape from the premises and ensuring these can be safely and effectively used, and measures to mitigate the effect of fire.