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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's quarterly release of EWS1 (or equivalent) lender data on mortgage valuations for flats, published on 21 March 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the fact that one in six EWS1 requests for mortgage valuations from October to December 2023 were for low rise buildings (1-4 storeys).

The EWS1 form is not a Government process, and we do not support its use in the mortgage process.

To aid transparency, the department does provide data during the process so that people can see how the use of EWS1 forms has changed over time.

We continue to press the industry to accept other forms of assurance other than EWS1s, such as a comprehensive fire risk assessment including the external wall systems, which building owners are mandated to carry out, under the Fire Safety Act 2021.