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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by the Minister for Housing on 22 January (HC Deb, col 141), what assessment they have made of the use of tower blocks for social housing.

We are addressing building safety concerns in light of the Grenfell Tower fire to ensure that residents of higher risk buildings are safe and feel safe now and in the future. As part of our comprehensive response to the fire we have established the Building Safety Portfolio to identify unsafe buildings, make buildings safe, identify system problems and fix the system

The Government will fully fund the removal and replacement of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material cladding systems on social residential buildings 18m and over owned by councils and housing associations, with costs estimated at £400 million. My Department has so far allocated £248 million to replace cladding on 135 buildings. We will still accept applications from building owners who require funding.