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 is taking steps to ensure that best practice under the developer remediation contract is (a) captured and (b) shared.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
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, how many audits his Department has conducted under the Developer Self Remediation Terms in relation to (a) building assessments and (b) post-remediation qualifying assessments between April 2023 and March 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
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 is taking to ensure that signatories of the developer remediation contract are taking responsibility for buildings where they are a contractor.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Publicly available data on the developer contract can be found here.
The Department encourages developers to discuss challenges and successes with the oversight team. Best practice examples are shared with other developers as appropriate.
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 number of weeks to obtain planning permission for building safety remediation works following the transition to a new Building Safety Regulator on 6 April 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Building regulations approval is separate from planning permission.
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 published on the treatment of jointly owned properties under the Building Safety Act's leaseholder protections, prior to his Department's Call for evidence: Jointly owned properties, published on 21 March 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Building Safety Act can be found here: Building Safety Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
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 is taking to secure contributions towards the costs of building safety remediation from (a) cladding manufacturers, (b) insulation manufacturers, (c) fire door manufacturers, (d) architects, (e) building contractors, (f) building control organisations and (g) warranty providers.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Hon Gentleman to the oral statement made in the House of Commons on 26th March 2024 (Official Report HC, Volume 747, Column 1414).
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 estimate he has made of the number of developers in the Responsible Actors Scheme complying with the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
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 assessment of the potential merits of introducing an audit programme to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
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 assessment of the potential merits of making the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings legally binding.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
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 average time taken for his Department to respond to leaseholder correspondence sent to the Under11mBuildings@LevellingUp.gov.uk email address in 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) places great importance on the effective and timely handling of correspondence. Although given the volume and complexity of some of the cases being received it does often take time to work through those cases.
As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence on GOV.UK, response times are measured against a 20-working day target deadline. We, therefore, do not collect data on the average length of time to respond to correspondence on specific policy issues.