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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reimburse leaseholders and tenants for increased service payments related to remedial cladding works since June 2017.

Government guidance is clear that building safety is the responsibility of building owners and we have given expert advice on a range of safety issues to provide clarity.

The Department has ongoing engagement with developers and building owners of private sector high-rise residential buildings (over 18 metres or six storeys, whichever is reached first) with unsafe cladding. This has led to the remediation of over half of high-rise residential buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding being funded by the developer, freeholder or through warranty claims, without passing the costs onto leaseholders. Furthermore, the Private Sector ACM Remediation Fund and the Building Safety Fund for the remediation of buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding both require applicants to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to recover the costs of replacing the unsafe cladding from those responsible through insurance claims, warranties or legal action.

Government also expects building owners who have already committed to pay for the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding systems to honour their commitments.

We recognise that there are cases where leasehold agreements will allow building owners or their managing agents to pass on remediation costs to leaseholders. That is why the Government is developing proposals to help to protect leaseholders, and we will provide more details as soon as we are in a position to do so.