Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Blomfield Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Q10. In a recent ITV interview, the Prime Minister was asked about my constituent Jenni Garratt. Jenni is a victim of the cladding scandal. Just before last Christmas, her building was evacuated because of safety concerns. She has been forced to pay £5,000 for a waking watch and alarms. She has to find £1,200 a year for car parking she can no longer access. The work needed to make her building safe is being blocked by the actions of her freeholder. She does not know the costs she will face, but they are estimated at thousands of pounds. Yet in his interview, the Prime Minister said Jenni had“a frankly unnecessary sense of anxiety”.So will he meet her to hear why she is worried, and do so before the Building Safety Bill completes its passage through the House?

[The Prime Minister]

I have every sympathy with the hon. Gentleman’s constituent—[Interruption.] I certainly do. I have every sympathy, but what I think is unfair is that people such as her are placed in a position of unnecessary anxiety about their homes when they should be reassured.

I sympathise deeply with people who have to pay for waking watches and other such things. I think it is absurd. But what people should be doing is making sure that we do not unnecessarily undermine the confidence of the market and of people in these homes, because they are not unsafe. Many millions of homes are not unsafe—and the hon. Gentleman should have the courage to say so.