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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that a leaseholder who purchased a lease after 14th February 2022, and who would qualify for protection from building safety costs based on their own circumstances, does not inherit a non-qualifying status from the previous owner.

The protected status of a property and its lease is based on its status on 14 February 2022 and is automatically transferred to future buyers of the lease. This means that if the property was not eligible for the protections on 14 February 2022, when in due course it is sold, the buyer does not benefit from those protections. This applies in the other direction as well; a flat protected on 14 February remains protected when sold.

All leaseholders - qualifying or not - are now fully protected in law from paying towards the remediation of both unsafe cladding systems and non-cladding defects if their landlord is - or is associated with - the developer who is responsible for that safety defect.

The proposed Responsible Actors Scheme would require eligible developers to remediate life-critical fire-safety defects in residential buildings of 11 metres or more which they had a role in developing or refurbishing over the 30 years prior to 5 April 2022, or face being prohibited from carrying out major development or obtaining building control approvals. Already, 48 of the country's largest developers have signed a contract committing to remediate buildings the developed, ahead of the new statutory scheme being approved by Parliament.

In addition, all leaseholders can benefit from the funding the government has made for the remediation of unsafe cladding.