Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Weaver Vale of 20 December 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Departmental officials are in regular contact with the leaseholders at Agar Grove to discuss the situation. Departmental officials and I are actively discussing the situation at Agar Grove and will write directly to those involved with an update in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of building insurance costs on people affected by building safety issues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Gentleman to the answer to Question UIN 22834 on 26 April 2024.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an estimate of the cost of implementing a reinsurance scheme for people affected by building safety issues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Gentleman to the answer to Question UIN 22834 on 26 April 2024.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the cost of implementing a reinsurance scheme for people affected by building safety issues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Gentleman to the answer to Question UIN 22834 on 26 April 2024.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that when a building owner enters administration, qualifying leaseholders remain protected from non-cladding remediation costs under the Building Safety Act.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The costs of remediation will only fall on leaseholders in the event some or all of the leaseholders choose to buy the freehold collectively and take over the rights and responsibilities of being the freeholder. Otherwise, the responsibilities will remain with the freeholder or, following the conclusion of any insolvency proceedings, with the party who acquires the freehold following termination of the insolvency. In which case, the leaseholder protections will apply.
As a result, qualifying leaseholders under the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 will remain protected in law from the costs of non-cladding historical safety defects being passed on to them through the service charge (under the terms of the protections).
Should a building owner become insolvent and enter administration, interested parties including leaseholders can also potentially look to pursue a previous freeholder, developer and any associated company or person for remediation costs through a Remediation Contribution Order and also have the potential to pursue developers, contractors or manufacturers where they are liable for defects which meant one or more dwellings in the building was not fit for habitation when the relevant works were completed.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of leaseholders who purchased leases between 14 February and 20 July 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
For information on land purchases I would encourage you to contact HM Land Registry.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the average time taken between a building entering the Cladding Safety Scheme pipeline for investigation and entering the pre-application stage of the scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The time taken to enter the pre-application stage depends on the speed of the applicant providing the necessary information. On average, applicants who enter the pre-application stage of the scheme do so two months after receiving the initial communication from Homes England which requires them to provide information about the status of their building.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's quarterly release of EWS1 (or equivalent) lender data on mortgage valuations for flats, published on 21 March 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the fact that one in six EWS1 requests for mortgage valuations from October to December 2023 were for low rise buildings (1-4 storeys).
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The EWS1 form is not a Government process, and we do not support its use in the mortgage process.
To aid transparency, the department does provide data during the process so that people can see how the use of EWS1 forms has changed over time.
We continue to press the industry to accept other forms of assurance other than EWS1s, such as a comprehensive fire risk assessment including the external wall systems, which building owners are mandated to carry out, under the Fire Safety Act 2021.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the research entitled EWS1 or equivalent lender data on mortgage valuations for flats: October 2023 to December 2023, published by his Department on 21 March 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the proportion of mortgage valuations on high rise flats that required an EWS1 form or equivalent in 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The EWS1 form is not a Government process, and we do not support its use in the mortgage process.
To aid transparency, the department does provide data during the process so that people can see how the use of EWS1 forms has changed over time.
We continue to press the industry to accept other forms of assurance other than EWS1s, such as a comprehensive fire risk assessment including the external wall systems, which building owners are mandated to carry out, under the Fire Safety Act 2021.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reallocating any underspend from the (a) Waking Watch Relief Fund and (b) Waking Watch Replacement Funds to support (i) sprinkler installation and (ii) other relevant steps where professional risk assessments deem them to be essential to mitigate life safety risks.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department regularly engages with all fund applicants, local and regional authorities, where they are responsible for administering awarded grant funding, and local Fire and Rescue Services following a successful application to the fund, to drive pace on the installation of fire alarms and the subsequent standing down of a waking watch.
Over £80 million has been made available to applications to install alarms. The schemes have operated on a first come first served basis, and all successful applications have been awarded grant funding.
Of the 25 residential buildings that have received funding under the Waking Watch Relief Fund that are yet to install alarms, all of these are being administered by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and they have the lead responsibility for resolving these issues. On 17 of these 25, we have been advised by Greater Manchester Combined Authority that installations have been completed but we are awaiting further assurance before we can formally update the application status. For a further seven, we are waiting updates of the exact status despite departmental officials seeking an update. On the final case, we are working alongside the Authority to resolve a specific situation.