Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect on the economy of leaseholders (a) losing their home and (b) declaring bankruptcy as a result of the costs of resolving fire safety issues relating to (i) cladding removal, (ii) balcony remediation, (iii) replacing combustible insulation, (iv) replacing missing fire breaks, (v) increased insurance premiums and (vi) waking watches.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have not conducted an economic assessment. However, we do recognise the financial pressures being placed on leaseholders as a result of historic remediation costs.
We have been clear that building owners and industry should make buildings safe without passing on costs to leaseholders – and where they have not stepped up, we have stepped in. The Government is taking the following steps to ease these pressures:
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answers of 15 March 2021 to Questions 166341 and 166342, what assessment he has made of the ability of his Department to make effective policy on building safety without an estimate of the potential number of leaseholders who may (a) lose their home and (b) declare bankruptcy as a result of the costs of resolving fire safety issues relating to (i) cladding removal, (ii) balcony remediation, (iii) replacing combustible insulation, (iv) replacing missing fire breaks, (v) increased insurance premiums and (vi) waking watches.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to my response to Questions UIN 166341 and UIN 166342 on 15 March 2021.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 163654 on Housing: Insulation, for what reason his Department has not made an estimate of the potential number of leaseholders who may (a) lose their home and (b) declare bankruptcy as a result of the costs of resolving fire safety issues relating to (i) cladding removal, (ii) balcony remediation, (iii) replacing combustible insulation, (iv) replacing missing fire breaks, (v) increased insurance premiums and (vi) waking watches.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is not possible to make such assessments. This is because the degree to which any fire safety issues require remedial action that impose costs on leaseholders, will depend on a professional fire risk assessment of individual buildings and the extent to which costs may be met by or recovered from developers, contractors or building warranties. In addition, we are unable to assess the potentially wide range of individual factors (such as job security, levels of mortgage commitment and personal circumstances) which could lead to people either losing their home or declaring bankruptcy due to additional costs.
However, we do recognise the financial pressures being placed on leaseholders through no fault of their own as a result of historic remediation costs. We have been clear that building owners and industry should make buildings safe without passing on costs to leaseholders – and where they have not stepped up, we have stepped in.
The Government is taking the following steps to ease these pressures:
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 163654 on Housing: Insulation, if his Department will make an estimate of the potential number of leaseholders who may (a) lose their home and (b) declare bankruptcy as a result of the costs of resolving fire safety issues relating to (i) cladding removal, (ii) balcony remediation, (iii) replacing combustible insulation, (iv) replacing missing fire breaks, (v) increased insurance premiums and (vi) waking watches.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is not possible to make such assessments. This is because the degree to which any fire safety issues require remedial action that impose costs on leaseholders, will depend on a professional fire risk assessment of individual buildings and the extent to which costs may be met by or recovered from developers, contractors or building warranties. In addition, we are unable to assess the potentially wide range of individual factors (such as job security, levels of mortgage commitment and personal circumstances) which could lead to people either losing their home or declaring bankruptcy due to additional costs.
However, we do recognise the financial pressures being placed on leaseholders through no fault of their own as a result of historic remediation costs. We have been clear that building owners and industry should make buildings safe without passing on costs to leaseholders – and where they have not stepped up, we have stepped in.
The Government is taking the following steps to ease these pressures:
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2021 to Questions 163173 and 163174, when he plans to publish the methodological note explaining how the 100 priority places were selected for funding from the UK Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
At Budget 2021, the UK Government published a prospectus for the UK Community Renewal Fund: an additional £220m funding for 2021/22 to help local areas prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022.
The UK Community Renewal Fund aims to support people and communities most in need across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches. It will invest in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment.
As set out in the prospectus published on 3 March, we have identified 100 priority places based on an index of economic resilience across Great Britain which measures productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density.
We are committed to transparency and have published a methodological note on the index used for the Fund: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2021 to Question 160570, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of leaseholders likely to (a) lose their home and (b) declare bankruptcy as a result of the costs of resolving fire safety issues relating to (i) cladding removal, (ii) balcony remediation, (iii) replacing combustible insulation, (iv) replacing missing fire breaks, (v) increased insurance premiums and (vi) waking watches.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The information requested is not held.
The Government has announced over £5 billion in grant funding towards the removal of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres in height. This unprecedented investment in building safety will help hundreds of thousands of leaseholders, who will be protected from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. Alongside this a generous finance scheme will also provide for remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings of 11-18 metres in height. Leaseholders will pay no more than £50 a month towards this scheme. We will publish more details on how these schemes will work soon.
These schemes will also ultimately help to end interim measures and reduce building insurance costs. They build on steps already taken to support leaseholders, including the £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund to incentivise the purchase of alarm systems in buildings where there is currently a waking watch in place and there is no common alarm system.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what methodology he used to create his Levelling Up Fund index; and how that methodology was used to rank local authorities into one of three priority categories for funding from the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
As set out in the prospectus published at Budget, the index used for the Levelling Up Fund places areas into category one, two or three based on the local area’s need for economic recovery and growth, improved transport connectivity, and regeneration. We will shortly publish further detail on the methodology used to calculate the index.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what methodology was used to create the index of economic resilience in respect of the UK Community Renewal Fund; and how that methodology was used to identify the 100 priority places which will receive capacity funding via their lead authority from the UK Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure the UK Community Renewal Fund funding reaches the most in need, we have identified 100 priority places based on an index of economic resilience across Great Britain which measures productivity, household income, unemployment, skills, and population density. We are committed to transparency and a methodological note will be published explaining how the 100 priority places were selected.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what building types will be covered by the research into property protection for the technical review of Approved Document B as anticipated by the workplan adopted in April 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The research team will be expected to consider evidence regarding all building types within scope of the statutory guidance to the Building Regulations with regards to fire safety (Approved Document B).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the proposed Building Safety Bill to Amend Section 1 of the Building Act for the power to make regulations to facilitate the protection of property in a proportionate manner.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Act 1984 already enables building regulations to be made on matters such as sustainable development and the security of buildings, as well as the health and safety of persons using buildings, and measures to meet these objectives can also have benefits for property protection. The Government has no plans to extend the scope of building regulations at present specifically to address property protection, but will keep this matter under review. In particular, Government will be undertaking research into how fire safety legislation in other countries addresses property protection issues.