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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on fire safety.

This Government is committed to making sure that high-rise buildings are safe, and that residents feel safe in them, now and in the future. On 5 September, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced a series of measures to drive progress, including: £10 million per year to fund tailored building checks and inspections on all high risk residential buildings in England by 2021; a consultation on changes to the Building Regulations guidance on fire safety, primarily lowering the height threshold for sprinklers; and confirmation that the private sector remediation fund will open on 12 September, to fund the removal of Aluminium Composite Material cladding from eligible buildings in the private residential sector.

Our consultation, Building a Safer Future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system closed on Wednesday 31 July 2019. We are now analysing the responses and will respond by the end of this year. We will then introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity, when parliamentary time allows.