Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department published on the treatment of jointly owned properties under the Building Safety Act's leaseholder protections, prior to his Department's Call for evidence: Jointly owned properties, published on 21 March 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Building Safety Act can be found here: Building Safety Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to secure contributions towards the costs of building safety remediation from (a) cladding manufacturers, (b) insulation manufacturers, (c) fire door manufacturers, (d) architects, (e) building contractors, (f) building control organisations and (g) warranty providers.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Hon Gentleman to the oral statement made in the House of Commons on 26th March 2024 (Official Report HC, Volume 747, Column 1414).
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of developers in the Responsible Actors Scheme complying with the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an audit programme to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings legally binding.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We have been clear that all remediation projects should comply with the Code. We will take appropriate action where there is a failure to comply, including legislating if necessary.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the average time taken for his Department to respond to leaseholder correspondence sent to the Under11mBuildings@LevellingUp.gov.uk email address in 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) places great importance on the effective and timely handling of correspondence. Although given the volume and complexity of some of the cases being received it does often take time to work through those cases.
As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence on GOV.UK, response times are measured against a 20-working day target deadline. We, therefore, do not collect data on the average length of time to respond to correspondence on specific policy issues.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the average time taken for his Department to respond to leaseholder correspondence on building safety matters in 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) places great importance on the effective and timely handling of correspondence. Although given the volume and complexity of some of the cases being received it does often take time to work through those cases.
As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence on GOV.UK, response times are measured against a 20-working day target deadline. We, therefore, do not collect data on the average length of time to respond to correspondence on specific policy issues.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to clause 18.2(B) of the Developer self-remediation contract, published on 30 January 2023, what the maximum time permitted is for a developer to delay commencement of works while they use reasonable endeavours to recover costs from other joint venture partners.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
No developer has provided the evidence required by the joint venture clause to show that they are less than 50% responsible for any of their listed buildings, so all developers are liable for 100% of the costs of remediating the relevant buildings. Developers are obligated to remediate buildings covered by the contract as soon as they are able.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many buildings with life-critical fire-safety defects are excluded from the developer self-remediation terms because a signatory to the developer contract is a joint venture partner who is entitled to less than 50% of the economic return from a building.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
No developer has provided the evidence required by the joint venture clause to show that they are less than 50% responsible for any of their listed buildings, so all developers are liable for 100% of the costs of remediating the relevant buildings. Developers are obligated to remediate buildings covered by the contract as soon as they are able.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release, updated on 26 March 2024, for how many and what proportion of social housing buildings where works have (a) started and (b) completed, the source of remediation funding is (i) the Registered Provider, (ii) Government funding and (iii) developer funding.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The data we published in March identified 1,952 buildings in the social sector requiring cladding remediation. Of those, 204 buildings (10%) were reported to have completed works and 525 buildings (27%) were reported to have started works.
Government has funded works in 144 social housing buildings through the Social Sector Cladding Remediation Fund (135 completed and nine underway), 167 buildings through the Building Safety Fund (50 completed and 56 underway), and 36 buildings in the recently launched Cladding Safety Scheme. Buildings may appear in more than one fund.