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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what average time it has taken for his Department to complete its assessments and decision-making on Building Safety Fund applications relating to Enfield.

The rate at which applications to the Building Safety Fund are progressed will be dependent on the readiness of building owners to provide the required information. Following registration, MHCLG contacts building owners or the responsible person to ask for supporting evidence for their technical eligibility for the fund. This will include evidence of the height of the building and materials that are in place.

It is disappointing that over 800 of the total of 2820 registrations to the Building Safety Fund have been unable to provide any of this basic information. We have engaged with registrants and industry bodies to understand the challenges they have in meeting our deadlines and criteria requirements. To address their concerns we have extended the deadlines for the fund to the end of June 2021, giving building owners more time to submit full applications but still reflecting the importance of these critical safety works.

We are also providing expert construction consultation support to actively engage with those planning and undertaking remediation work under the Building Safety Fund to increase the pace of remediation. We expect all buildings with an existing application to be started on site by September 2021.