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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the three properties threshold for qualifying lease status outlined in the Building Safety Act 2022 on the private rented sector.

The Building Safety Act introduced leaseholder protections to ensure leaseholders are safe in their buildings. A threshold which set a balance between those purchasing properties primarily to live in and those who have made commercial or investment decisions, whether freeholders or leaseholders, was therefore needed.

There are protections in place for leaseholders who do not qualify. Building owners and landlords who built defective buildings of at least 11m or at least five storeys, or are associated with those responsible, must pay to remedy historical safety defects for both cladding and non-cladding defects. The principal residence of all leaseholders in relevant buildings will qualify for the protections. In addition, remediation contribution orders and the Defective Premises Act provide routes for leaseholders in relevant buildings to recover remediation costs from those responsible, whatever their qualifying status.