Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much of the (a) £400 million Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund and (b) £200 million Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund has been allocated.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Data on the progress of the Social and Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Funds, including the amount allocated so far from each one, can be found in the monthly Building Safety Data Release available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/aluminium-composite-material-cladding#acm-remediation-data.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
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 June to Questions 11562 and 11563, if he will publish the (a) industry standard approach to specification and procurement of works, and (b) cost benchmarks established from comparable projects, that his Department uses when scrutinising managing agents' fees in applications to the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is the responsibility of the applicant to the Building Safety Fund to ensure that costs for eligible works under the Fund, including any management fees, are informed by an industry standard approach to specification and procurement of works. This requirement is set out in the Building Safety Fund Application Guidance available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/992252/BSF_Fund_Application_Guidance_.pdf
As set out in the answers to Questions UIN 11562 and UIN 11563, costs are benchmarked against comparable projects and higher than expected costs will be challenged and will be subject to further scrutiny, and the level of grant may be reduced. Costs benchmarks are commercially sensitive and so cannot be published.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish his response to the consultation, Fire safety: risk prioritisation in existing buildings, which closed on 17 February 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are considering the information provided by respondents to the call for evidence, and will be publishing a response.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the £3.5 billion of funding for the Building Safety Fund announced by the Government on 10 February 2020, what proportion of that funding will be available for grant funding; and what proportion will be allocated to staffing and other administrative costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The additional £3.5 billion of funding announced on 10 February will be pay for the remediation of unsafe cladding from all high rise residential buildings which have made eligible applications to the Building Safety Fund.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the £3.5 billion of funding for the Building Safety Fund announced by the Government on 10 February 2020, in which financial year that funding will be made available.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The announcement on 10 February of an additional £3.5 billion of funding to remediate unsafe cladding from high rise residential buildings provides assurance for residents that all eligible applications to the Building Safety Fund will be able to proceed. This funding will be made available from the current financial year.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish data on the average cost of remediation of unsafe cladding per building for buildings (a) covered and (b) not covered by the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Statistics on the Building Safety Fund are published and updated monthly at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registration-statistics
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the Building Safety Fund that will be spent on managing agent fees.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Fund will cover all reasonable costs for eligible works that are necessary to remediate unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings, including a range of direct project costs such as professional team fees and managing agents' fees in respect of administering qualifying expenditure. Reasonable costs must be informed by an industry standard approach to specification and procurement of works, having regard to cost benchmarks established from comparable projects. Higher than expected costs will be challenged and will be subject to further scrutiny, and the level of grant may be reduced. The Department has not analysed managing agent fees across the Building Safety Fund given the cost benchmarking safeguards that are in place for each individual project.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the average fee level for managing agents is for grants under the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Fund will cover all reasonable costs for eligible works that are necessary to remediate unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings, including a range of direct project costs such as professional team fees and managing agents' fees in respect of administering qualifying expenditure. Reasonable costs must be informed by an industry standard approach to specification and procurement of works, having regard to cost benchmarks established from comparable projects. Higher than expected costs will be challenged and will be subject to further scrutiny, and the level of grant may be reduced. The Department has not analysed managing agent fees across the Building Safety Fund given the cost benchmarking safeguards that are in place for each individual project.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the level of UK-produced steel procured by his Department and associated departmental public bodies and agencies in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is working with the steel industry, the unions and devolved administrations to support the United Kingdom’s steel sector to develop a long-term sustainable future. This includes making sure that United Kingdom producers of steel have the best possible chance of competing for and winning contracts across all Government procurement.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) collates and publishes annually information on how much steel is purchased for Government’s major infrastructure projects in the previous financial year, including what proportion is United Kingdom-produced.
We expect to publish the 2019/20 data later this year, and will start collating the data on United Kingdom steel procured in 2020/21.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding the Troubled Families programme will receive in the 2019 Spending Round.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
I am pleased to confirm that the Troubled Families Programme will continue for 2020-21 as part of the one-year spending round, ensuring that more families get access to the vital, early support they need to overcome complex problems such as anti-social behaviour, mental health issues or domestic violence. This was announced in HM Treasury’s spending round document. We will be communicating the detail of the funding breakdown as soon as possible.