Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many payments have been made from the Government's fund for the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding; who those payments have been made to; what criteria has been applied to allocate that funding; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Esther McVey
We are providing around £600 million of funding for the remediation of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding in high rise residential buildings in the social and private sector. We are pushing owners and local authorities hard to remediate unsafe buildings and we expect to see building owners take action. We have so far allocated £259 million to replace cladding on 140 social sector buildings. In the private sector we expect all eligible buildings to have applied to the fund by the end of this year. We will continue to maintain pressure on developers and building owners to do the right thing and get on with remediation. We will set out progress on remediation in the next data release on 14 November.
Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his Answer of 2 July 2018 to Question 158171, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the response of Abacus Land 4 Ltd to tenants of Heysmoor Heights, Liverpool who have been charged in relation to replacement of cladding following the Grenfell Tower disaster; and if will he make a statement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We understand that leaseholders in Heysmoor Heights have been protected from a substantial proportion of the overall remediation costs due to a warranty claim being accepted. However, we continue to set our strong expectation that leaseholders should be protected from all remediation costs. We have written to, and continue to engage with, individual building owners to reiterate this expectation.
Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that leaseholders in privately-owned blocks do not have to fund the replacement of cladding and remedial fire safety measures following the Grenfell Tower tragedy; and if he will he make a statement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Ministers have been very clear that in the private sector it is the responsibility of the building owner, or responsible person, to fund the measures necessary to ensure the safety of residents and must do all they can to protect leaseholders from additional costs. We are encouraged by those in the sector, such as Barratt Developments, Mace, Legal & General and Taylor Wimpey, who are doing the right thing and taking responsibility, and we expect others to follow their lead.
The Secretary of State has recently written to all private sector building owners who are currently committed to passing costs to leaseholders, and to those who are yet to make clear their plans to remediate their buildings, or their intention to pass on costs.
These letters set the expectation that there is a moral imperative for private sector landlords to do the right thing and remove unsafe cladding quickly and not leave leaseholders to cover the cost. We have made clear that we have ruled out no options if industry, individual building owners, or developers do not come forward with their own solutions.