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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release, Government steps in to help homeowners caught up in EWS1 process, published on 21 November 2020, how many of the 6,000 building assessors are qualified to carry out the EWS1 assessment.

The Government has provided the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a grant for nearly £700,000 to develop and deliver training for up to 2,000 assessors who will be able to carry out EWS1 assessments.

This training enables these assessors to undertake external wall system assessments for low to medium rise residential buildings of up to 18 metres. The newly qualified assessors will help increase the number of professionals qualified to carry out such assessments, and free up the specialist engineers who are able to assess buildings over 18 metres and those which are high risk and require specialist testing.

Training commenced in January and course enrolments are currently around 870. If fewer than 2,000 individuals enrol on the course, then RICS will repay part of the grant to the Department.