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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to make funding available for (a) waking watch or (b) other interim measures for residential dwellings undertaking remediation work to remove ACM cladding.

The most effective way to make buildings with unsafe cladding safe and eliminate the need for interim measures and associated costs is to have the unsafe cladding removed as quickly as possible. That is why we have prioritised £1.6 billion of public subsidy on remediation of unsafe cladding. However, we recognise residents’ concerns about the cost of waking watch measures. The Government has therefore announced a new £30 million fund to pay for the costs of installing an alarm system in buildings with unsafe cladding. Common alarm systems will enable costly waking watch measures to be replaced in buildings waiting to have unsafe cladding removed.