Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what further steps he plans to take to prevent costs resulting from cladding remediation from being passed on to leaseholders to pay.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Bill will ensure that those responsible for occupied higher-risk buildings will be required to actively manage building safety risks, evidencing this through the safety case regime overseen by the Building Safety Regulator. This will ensure major fire and structural hazards are effectively and proportionately managed, mitigated and remedied and that effective steps are taken, which take into account safety and cost.
We have been clear that building owners and industry should make buildings safe without passing on costs to leaseholders and where they haven't stepped up, we have stepped in. The Government has announced a globally unprecedented investment over £5 billion in building safety and hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of remediating unsafe cladding from their homes.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what protection he has made available to leaseholders to prevent freeholders making them forfeit their leases due to inability to pay (a) cladding and (b) other fire safety-related costs demanded in service charge bills rendered for payment prior to the introduction of planned government fire-safety remedial compensation schemes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government believes that forfeiture is a draconian measure and should only be used as a last resort. In practice forfeiture happens very rarely and is subject to the right of relief, to be exercised at the court’s discretion. Any changes to forfeiture will require a careful balancing of the rights and responsibilities of landlords and leaseholders. As a first step, we have asked the Law Commission to update their 2006 report Termination of Tenancies for Tenant Default given the passage of time, and to take into account the implications of the reforms currently underway. We will then consider what action may be needed, including potential legislative measures.
The Government is providing £5 billion of funding to protect leaseholders living in residential buildings over 18 metres with unsafe cladding from the costs of remediation. Leaseholders in buildings between 11 and 18 metres will be able to access finance for cladding remediation, with a commitment that they will not have to pay more than £50 per month towards these remediation costs. Government funding does not absolve building owners of their responsibility to ensure their buildings are safe. They should consider all routes to meet costs, protecting leaseholders where they can – for example through warranties and recovering costs from contractors for incorrect or poor work. We have seen many responsible developers and building owners stepping up to take responsibility for correcting these defects - for example, in more than half of the high-rise private sector buildings with ACM.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what additional steps he plans to take to protect leaseholders from costs arising from (a) the misuse of flammable cladding and (b) other unsafe structural design features used in the (i) construction and (ii) modification of the apartment blocks containing their flats.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Longstanding independent safety advice has been clear that unsafe cladding poses the greatest risk to buildings, because it can act as a fuel to a fire. Our approach prioritises action on the risks of unsafe cladding – the costs for remediating this are high, and the risks posed by it are also high. The Government has announced a globally unprecedented investment in building safety and hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of remediating unsafe cladding on their homes. On 10 February the Government announced it will provide an additional £3.5 billion grant funding for remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres, which brings the total investment in building safety to an unprecedented £5.1 billion.
Lower-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres, with a lower risk to safety, will gain protection from the costs of cladding remediation through a generous financing scheme. As part of this financing scheme, no leaseholder will pay more than £50 per month towards the cost of cladding remediation. This builds on steps already taken to support leaseholders, including the £30 million waking watch fund to help end excessive costs and new legislation in the Building Safety Bill which will ensure homes are made and kept safer in future. We will publish more details on how the schemes will work as soon as we are in a position to do so.