Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

ORIGINAL: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will allocate additional resources to his £1.6 billion fund to remove and replace unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings to include in that fund properties under 18 metres.

The Government has made £1 billion available to fund the removal of unsafe non-Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding. This is in addition to the £600 million made available already to ensure the remediation of the highest risk ACM cladding. The Government’s decision to place the scope of the Building Safety Fund at buildings over 18 metres reflects the exceptional fire risk that certain cladding products pose at that height.

It remains building owners’ responsibility to address unsafe cladding on buildings of all heights. Government funding should not be the only means of funding remediation. Building owners should meet the costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible, through their own resources or by recovering costs from applicable warranty schemes or from the developers or contractors who were responsible for the installation of installed unsafe cladding, as has happened with more than half of the private sector buildings with ACM cladding.