Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Building Safety Act on the (a) qualified and non-qualified status of flats, (b) the length of remediation projects and (c) the level of cost associated with the need to apply for deeds of certificates.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) provided protections for certain leaseholders from the costs of remedying certain historical safety defects which might otherwise be recovered from leaseholders via the service charge. The definition of “qualifying lease” is in Section 119 of the Act and defined protection from 14 February 2022. The department keeps under review the impact of the Act on leaseholders, regardless of the status of their leases (qualifying or non-qualifying).
The Act put in place a statutory framework to protect residents and ensure buildings were remediated. Where remediation is needed and not progressing, remediation orders, defined in Section 123 of the Act, can be applied for. They provide a route against a relevant landlord for interested persons (e.g. leaseholders) to obtain remediation of a building with a relevant defect. The leaseholder protections under the Act prevent internal defect remediation costs from falling disproportionately on leaseholders, which might otherwise slow remediation. We are confident that the Act is not delaying progress with regards to the length of time remediation takes to be completed.
Under regulations following the Act, the leaseholder deed of certificate (LDC) is used to confirm whether a leaseholder qualifies for protections under the Act. Leaseholders cannot be charged to complete the deed of certificate by the landlord. A deed of certificate can be completed by the leaseholder without professional support. There might be, however, a small charge to access the necessary HM Land Registry documents that may be required as evidence.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to expedite the removal and remediation of dangerous cladding on properties; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that properties that previously qualified for the Building Safety Fund are remediated in a timely way.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP) sets out key measures to fix buildings faster, identify remaining buildings still at risk and ensure that residents are supported through the remediation process.
No leaseholder in a high-rise residential building should wait a day longer for remediation than necessary, and under our plan by the end of 2029 all 18m+ (high-rise) buildings with unsafe cladding in a government funded scheme will have been remediated. In addition, every building of 11m+ with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a completion date, or the landlord will be liable for severe penalties. Our plan will drive the pace of remediation through new proposed legal duties and powers, new funding, new resources and new partnerships.
By July 2024, we had moved 124 buildings (18m+) from the Building Safety Fund to the Cladding Safety Scheme. All 124 buildings now have a signed Grant Funding Agreement.