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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the proposed Building Safety Bill to Amend Section 1 of the Building Act for the power to make regulations to facilitate the protection of property in a proportionate manner.

The Building Act 1984 already enables building regulations to be made on matters such as sustainable development and the security of buildings, as well as the health and safety of persons using buildings, and measures to meet these objectives can also have benefits for property protection. The Government has no plans to extend the scope of building regulations at present specifically to address property protection, but will keep this matter under review. In particular, Government will be undertaking research into how fire safety legislation in other countries addresses property protection issues.