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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of leaseholders who do not qualify for support for the remediation of cladding and fire safety defects and who cannot meet their share of the cost of those works on the progress of the remediation of those buildings.

The Department are undertaking legal action against Grey GR, a subsidiary of Railpen.

The Department wrote to Grey GR regarding Cardinal Lofts and Timblebeck in November 2022 and February 2023, and again regarding Cardinal Lofts in March 2023, concerning the safety of residents. Departmental officials last met with Railpen officials today.

A copy of the Secretary of State’s correspondence will be placed in the Library of the House.

Building owners are legally responsible for making sure their buildings are safe. Should the residents of an unsafe building need to be evacuated, the Government expects building owners to provide suitable alternative accommodation until residents can return home, at the building owner's expense, and for the building to be remediated.

Regarding non-qualifying leaseholders we continue to monitor closely the remediation of all buildings in receipt of public funding, such as from the Building Safety Fund. For those buildings where the developer or freeholder have agreed to remediate, no costs should be attributable to leaseholders, whether qualifying or non-qualifying for other costs. Parliament determined a way forward on this matter in 2022 which we continue to monitor.