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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of a non-qualifying leaseholder's ability to pay for building safety remediation, given that developers must meet an annual profit condition of £10 million and freeholders must meet the net wealth test of £2 million per relevant building.

There is no test of ability to pay for freeholders; the £2 million ‘contribution condition’ merely determines whether freeholders must meet all remediation costs for qualifying leaseholders or whether they can seek capped contributions from them. Likewise, the ‘annual profit condition’ of £10 million is an initial level above which we are seeking to apply the Responsible Actors’ Scheme to developers; it is not a figure below which developers are somehow exempt from meeting the cost of remediation.

Once a building is remediated, the qualifying status of a lease should not have an impact on valuation, or mortgage lending. Major mortgage lenders made clear in a statement in March 2022 they would lend on buildings subject to remediation and guidance from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published in December 2022 provides a clear approach on valuing properties impacted by building safety issues.