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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policy on the applicability to cladding of paragraph 12.7 of the Approved Fire Regulations of the letter from the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology to the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, dated 10 May 2018.

In December 2018 the Government introduced regulations that banned the use of combustible materials in the external walls of specific types of high-rise buildings.

The ban provides clear performance requirements for materials in the external walls.

The amendment to the Building Regulations was introduced alongside a commitment to review the ban annually as stated in the Explanatory Memorandum published alongside SI 2018/1230.

The Government is currently consulting on reducing the current height threshold from 18 metres to 11 metres. The consultation closes on 13 April 2020 and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-the-ban-on-the-use-of-combustible-materials-in-and-on-the-external-walls-of-buildings