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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the safe installation of cladding or external wall insulation on high-rise buildings.

It is the responsibility of people carrying out building work to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations. As well as requirements relating to fire safety (Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations, Part B), requirements relating to structures (Part A), resistance to moisture (Part C) and conservation of fuel and power (Part L) will be relevant. Building owners should take account of all these considerations when planning work on external wall surfaces.

On 30 June, we published a note covering the Government Building Safety Programme at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-note-on-safety-checks-and-testing

That note makes clear that if a landlord chooses to take down and replace cladding, care should be taken to consider the impact that removal may have on the other wall elements, especially insulation, and therefore on the overall fire integrity of the building as well as other Building Regulation requirements.