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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to accelerating the completion of all necessary fire safety remedial work to high rise residential buildings by establishing a scheme for payment from central funds of costs incurred by local authorities who carry out such work on privately owned high rise buildings, pending reimbursement of costs by the building owner.

Where, as part of the enforcement action, local authorities take emergency action themselves to remediate high rise private sector residential building with unsafe ACM cladding then the Housing Act 2004 allows local authorities to recover reasonably incurred expenses, with interest. The Government is committed to supporting local authorities to ensure that such private-sector buildings are remediated, including financial support to take emergency remedial action if that is necessary. Local authorities finding themselves in this position should approach my department to discuss what support may be needed.