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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that leaseholders in privately-owned blocks do not have to fund the replacement of cladding and remedial fire safety measures following the Grenfell Tower tragedy; and if he will he make a statement.

Ministers have been very clear that in the private sector it is the responsibility of the building owner, or responsible person, to fund the measures necessary to ensure the safety of residents and must do all they can to protect leaseholders from additional costs. We are encouraged by those in the sector, such as Barratt Developments, Mace, Legal & General and Taylor Wimpey, who are doing the right thing and taking responsibility, and we expect others to follow their lead.

The Secretary of State has recently written to all private sector building owners who are currently committed to passing costs to leaseholders, and to those who are yet to make clear their plans to remediate their buildings, or their intention to pass on costs.

These letters set the expectation that there is a moral imperative for private sector landlords to do the right thing and remove unsafe cladding quickly and not leave leaseholders to cover the cost. We have made clear that we have ruled out no options if industry, individual building owners, or developers do not come forward with their own solutions.