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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been awarded to local authoiities for the improvement of fire safety in their housing stock since the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Building owners are responsible for funding fire safety measures in their buildings. If a local authority building owner considers a building to be unsafe, they will need to determine what measures are essential to make a building safe, based on expert advice and taking into account any recommendations or advice from the local fire and rescue service.

Local authorities should draw on existing resources to implement these measures. However, we will consider the removal of financial restrictions for local authorities where these stand in the way of essential work being done.

36 local authorities have contacted the Department regarding work to ensure fire safety in tower blocks. We have asked 9 of these authorities to provide more detailed information about essential works. So far, 2 authorities have provided this information and my officials are working with them on their requests.