Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 110299, whether the work that Michael Wade is developing on protecting leaseholders from unaffordable costs will seek to replace the Building Safety Charge in the Building Safety Bill.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The proposed Building Safety Charge has been designed to ensure that the costs leaseholders pay for building safety measures are transparent and reasonable. We envisage this will include ongoing costs, such as those for the Building Safety Manager, and powers for the Secretary of State to exclude specific costs from being re-charged.
My department is working on proposals to protect leaseholders from unfair costs caused by historic building safety defects.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Building Safety to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on 19 October 2020, for what reason the Government decided to change its policy on allowing costs to be placed onto leaseholders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is unacceptable for leaseholders to have to worry about the cost of fixing historic safety defects in their buildings that they did not cause. Government has repeatedly said that building owners should step up and not pass these costs on to leaseholders, where possible.
Where developers or building owners have been unable or unwilling to pay, we have introduced funding schemes providing £1.6 billion to?accelerate the pace of work and?meet?the costs of remediating the highest risk and most expensive defects – Aluminium Composite Material cladding and other unsafe cladding systems like High Pressure Laminates.
The department is working on proposals to protect leaseholders from unfair costs caused by historic building safety defects. We will provide an update before the Building Safety Bill returns to Parliament.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Building Safety to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on 19 October 2020, whether the Building Safety Charge will apply to retrospective building faults.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The proposed Building Safety Charge has been designed to ensure that the costs leaseholders pay for building safety measures are transparent and reasonable. We envisage this will include ongoing costs, such as those for the Building Safety Manager, and powers for the Secretary of State to exclude specific costs from being re-charged.
The department is working on proposals to protect leaseholders from unfair costs caused by historic building safety defects.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which external financial advisers are working with Michael Wade on protecting leaseholders from unaffordable costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Michael Wade has engaged with a number of stakeholders from the financial sector, including lenders, insurers and their representative bodies. He has not employed one specific financial adviser to work with him on this project, rather he has sought input from across the sector.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 110299 on High Rise Flats: Insulation, what plans he has in place to ensure that the funding solution that Michael Wade is drawing up will work when leaseholders are financially unable to pay for remediation costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The department is undertaking analysis on the affordability of costs for leaseholders and an update to the analysis will be included in the revised Impact Assessment to the Building Safety Bill.
My department will provide an update before the Building Safety Bill returns to Parliament.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 110299 on High Rise Flats: Insulation, whether the leaseholder funding solution that Michael Wade is working on will prioritise the buildings most at risk.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The programme has prioritised remediation of combustible cladding – and particularly Aluminium Composite Material cladding– because it acts as a fire accelerant and poses the greatest risk of fire spread. We have made £1.6 billion available to support the remediation of unsafe cladding.
Our impact assessment also identifies work not related to cladding that will need to be remediated. Michael Wade, senior adviser to?MHCLG, is working with leaseholders and the financial sector to identify financing solutions that protect leaseholders from unfair costs of building safety works while ensuring that the bill does not fall on taxpayers.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 110299, what the planned timescale is for Michael Wade's report on proposals to protect leaseholders from unaffordable remediation costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Government Advisor Michael Wade is advising the department on how to protect leaseholders from unaffordable costs. We will provide an update to Parliament before the Building Safety Bill returns to Parliament.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Building Safety to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on 19 October 2020, whether the Government plans to implement a similar system to Flood Re in order to protect leaseholders from unaffordable costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The department is working on proposals to protect leaseholders from unaffordable costs caused by historic building safety defects. We will provide an update before the Building Safety Bill returns to Parliament.