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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State of 18 May 2020 to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, what plans his Department has to collect data on the cost of waking watches and other interim safety measures for leaseholders waiting for (a) ACM cladding and (b) non-ACM cladding to be removed.

Interim measures such as waking watch should only ever be short term and are not a substitute for remediation. Lord Greenhalgh, the Minister with responsibility for building safety, is investigating what can be done to reduce the cost of waking watch for buildings that currently have them in place. This includes ensuring that waking watch costs are transparent so that leaseholders and others who commission these services can ensure that costs are reasonable. As part of the review he will consider available cost data and engage with those that commission and pay for these services.