Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that leaseholders do not have to fund remedial building modifications associated with aluminium composite material cladding.

The department collects data on the number of residential buildings over 18 metres in height in England with unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. In the Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency, fewer than 10 such buildings have been identified, but the exact number cannot be disclosed to protect the privacy of individual buildings.

Leaseholders in buildings over 11 metres or five storeys are protected from paying for remediation of safety defects if the developer has signed the developer remediation contract. Additionally, the Government has made £5.1 billion available through the Building Safety Fund and Cladding Safety Scheme to cover cladding repairs for buildings over 18 metres where no responsible developer can be identified.

Furthermore, Remediation Contribution Orders provide leaseholders with a means to recover historical safety remediation costs from those responsible, such as developers.

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), funded by the department, offers free legal advice to leaseholders.

Developers who have signed the remediation contract are responsible for funding assessments and completing all fire safety work, including non-cladding issues, in line with PAS9980 standards for external works and relevant standards for internal works, all at their own expense.