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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure those seeking mortgages are not required to produce an EWS1 form for buildings under 11 metres for lending purposes.

There is no statutory requirement for an EWS1 form to be provided to support a mortgage application. Not all lenders will require an EWS1 form and where appropriate, customers should approach multiple finance providers to access the best commercial offering from the market.

Unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, in properties that are under 11m tall, we would not expect any building safety defects that would cause a risk to life, because it is generally accepted that risk to life is proportional to the height of buildings. Therefore, the lack of an EWS1 should not present a barrier to lending.