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Written Question
Social Rented Housing: Wimbledon
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the speed with which (a) London and Quadrant and (b) other social landlords in Wimbledon constituency have complied with their obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022; and if he will meet with (i) the hon. Member for Wimbledon and (ii) residents in Wimbledon constituency to discuss this matter.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Regulator of Social Housing recently completed a Fire Remediation Survey on the progress that Registered Providers of social housing are making towards identifying and fixing fire safety defects in their stock above 11 metres. We intend to publish findings by the end of the year. I would be happy to meet with my Hon Friend to discuss remediation in his Wimbledon constituency, should that be helpful.


Written Question
Regional Planning and Development: Carbon Emissions
Friday 20th January 2023

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Institution of Civil Engineers' policy position statement entitled Defining the outcomes from levelling up, published on 16 June 2022, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill of that statement’s position that there should be clearer alignment between levelling up and net zero.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We welcome the Institution of Civil Engineer's engagement on these two vital Government priorities. As highlighted in the Levelling Up White Paper, the largest industrial emitting sectors are in some of the least prosperous areas in the UK, where investment in the transition to Net Zero can potentially yield significant benefits for businesses and communities.

We are keen to harness the opportunity that the Net Zero transition presents to level up the UK. That is why we have established a Green Jobs Delivery Group in collaboration with industry and energy leaders, to support the delivery of 480,000 new green jobs by 2030. The Group will help ensure the UK has the skilled workforce it needs to build clean industries, whilst making sure that workers, businesses and local areas are supported throughout the transition. The Government also looks forward to responding to the Skidmore Review, which sets out recommendations on the interaction between Net Zero, levelling up and local leadership.


Written Question
Buildings: Insulation
Monday 28th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

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 Building Safety Fund guidance for new applications 2022, published on 28 July 2022, when he will introduce the fund to mitigate against life safety fire risks associated with cladding on mid-rise residential buildings that are 11-18m in height.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Government is launching a new 11-18 metre cladding remediation scheme to fund work on buildings where a responsible developer cannot be identified. Details of the Fund will be announced as soon as they are ready.


Written Question
Buildings: Insulation
Monday 28th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in the context of the ongoing Grenfell Tower Inquiry, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward further legislative proposals to (a) hold to account and (b) ensure compensation for victims from those responsible for the installation of defective building materials.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Government brought forward extensive protections for leaseholders through the Building Safety Act 2022, enabling those responsible for historical safety defects to be pursued and held to account. It also provides for leaseholders and other interested persons to seek to recover costs already paid in relation to the remediation of historical safety defects via a remediation contribution order. The department will continue to monitor compliance with the Act's provisions and allow the new regime to bed in before deciding whether further legislation should be brought forward.


Written Question
Buildings: Safety
Thursday 24th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure developers and product manufacturers responsible for defective buildings are required to take financial responsibility for those buildings.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, those responsible for creating historical safety defects will bear the burden of costs for remediation and will be held accountable. Building owners and landlords who are, or are connected to, the developer must fix historical safety defects in their buildings above 11 metres or five storeys.

The Act also gives developers, landlords and leaseholders new legal remedies against construction product manufacturers whose products fail to comply with regulations, which results in a construction product being installed in a building and the product causing or contributing to a dwelling being rendered 'unfit for habitation'.

The Act also gives the Secretary of State the power to establish a statutory scheme to distinguish between industry actors that have committed to take responsibility where historic defects are identified, and remediation is needed and those that fail to do so. In addition, the Act gives the Secretary of State powers to prevent those that have failed to take responsibility from carrying out development for which planning permission has been granted, and to prevent them from receiving building control approval on their developments.

As the final backstop of the leaseholder protections, section 133 of the Act (once in force) will create a duty that landlords take reasonable steps to explore alternative cost recovery avenues before asking leaseholders to contribute to remediation works - including pursuing third parties responsible for defective buildings.

To protect residents in high-rise residential buildings who are facing the most serious safety risks, £5.1 billion has been committed by Government to fund cladding remediation where developers, industry or building owners are not doing so. The Building Safety Levy will be charged on new residential developments and raise an additional estimated £3 billion to remediate buildings over 11 metres tall, where no responsible developer has been identified.


Written Question
Buildings: Fire Prevention
Thursday 24th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

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 estimate of public funding required to carry out cladding remediation of unsafe buildings.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, those responsible for creating historical safety defects will bear the burden of costs for remediation and will be held accountable. Building owners and landlords who are, or are connected to, the developer must fix historical safety defects in their buildings above 11 metres or five storeys.

The Act also gives developers, landlords and leaseholders new legal remedies against construction product manufacturers whose products fail to comply with regulations, which results in a construction product being installed in a building and the product causing or contributing to a dwelling being rendered 'unfit for habitation'.

The Act also gives the Secretary of State the power to establish a statutory scheme to distinguish between industry actors that have committed to take responsibility where historic defects are identified, and remediation is needed and those that fail to do so. In addition, the Act gives the Secretary of State powers to prevent those that have failed to take responsibility from carrying out development for which planning permission has been granted, and to prevent them from receiving building control approval on their developments.

As the final backstop of the leaseholder protections, section 133 of the Act (once in force) will create a duty that landlords take reasonable steps to explore alternative cost recovery avenues before asking leaseholders to contribute to remediation works - including pursuing third parties responsible for defective buildings.

To protect residents in high-rise residential buildings who are facing the most serious safety risks, £5.1 billion has been committed by Government to fund cladding remediation where developers, industry or building owners are not doing so. The Building Safety Levy will be charged on new residential developments and raise an additional estimated £3 billion to remediate buildings over 11 metres tall, where no responsible developer has been identified.


Written Question
Solar Power: Planning Permission
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to amend planning regulations for installing solar panels on roofs in (a) conservation and (b) other areas.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

To support the generation of renewable energy there are a range of nationally set permitted development rights that allow for the installation of micro-generation equipment, including rooftop solar panels on domestic and non-domestic properties, without having to make a planning application.

We will keep the existing permitted development rights for solar equipment under regular review.


Written Question
Buildings: Repairs and Maintenance
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

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 secured funding from product manufacturers for building safety remediation works.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

In January we asked product manufacturers to make a public funding commitment by March. While many responsible developers have pledged to pay their share of costs, manufacturers have failed to deliver. The previous Secretary of State informed the Construction Products Association (CPA) that this is unacceptable, and that we are prepared to do whatever it takes to hold those companies to account.

Our Building Safety Act gives developers, freeholders and leaseholders new legal remedies against manufacturers whose products fail to comply with regulations. The new Recovery Strategy Unit will identify and pursue individuals and firms that fail to do the right thing, including through the courts if necessary.


Written Question
Buildings: Repairs and Maintenance
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

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 likely costs of all works required as a result of the Building Safety Act 2022.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

Our assessment of impacts for the Building Safety Act 2022 does not include an estimate of the cost of works resulting directly from the Act and no other estimate has been made.

The Building Safety Act 2022 does not require new works to be conducted; it strengthens powers to require the carrying out of outstanding works which should have already been conducted to ensure compliance with building regulations and building safety.


Written Question
Buildings: Repairs and Maintenance
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)

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 estimate of the number of buildings with safety defects where the individuals responsible for those defects cannot be located.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

The department has not made any assessments of the number of buildings with fire safety defects where the individuals responsible cannot be located.

The department has published estimates on the number of mid-rise residential buildings which require remediation, partial remediation or mitigation to alleviate life-safety fire risk. This publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimating-the-prevalence-and-costs-of-external-wall-system-life-safety-fire-risk-in-mid-rise-residential-buildings-in-england.

The department has also published information on the remediation progress of high-rise (over 18 metres) residential and publicly-owned buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations is available in the Building Safety Programme data release.

For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding, the department is continuing to work with building owners to progress applications for the Building Safety Fund at pace so more remedial works can begin as swiftly as possible. Information on registrations to the Building Safety Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registrations-private-sector-and-social-sector.