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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the average length of time taken was between (a) a leaseholder or building owner notifying his Department of a building under 11 metres with a fire risk appraisal of external wall construction assessment stating that building safety remediation work is required and (b) an audit being completed, in the latest period for which that information is available.

Following the passing of the Building Safety Act, we sought representations from leaseholders in buildings under 11 metres who believed there were building safety concerns. Potential issues with 160 buildings have been raised with the department so far.

Having reviewed the cases raised with us, 31 required Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW) audits, which we have commissioned and 27 of those audits have been completed. In many cases, the concerns raised with us were found either not to be building safety remediation issues or works were not actually proposed by the freeholder.

With regards to the average time taken for the audit to be completed by the department, this will depend upon how quickly the relevant information for the audit to proceed is received. Audits are dependent on the information from third parties like the resident, freeholder or managing agent. Where a FRAEW is provided, our assessor will usually complete an audit within two weeks.

To date, our audits have found that only three buildings under 11 metres require remediation.

We are in conversation with building owners and developers about funding solutions that protect leaseholders. We stress that the responsibility for the costs of fixing historical building safety defects should rest with building owners. They should not pass these costs on to leaseholders but should seek to recover costs from those who were responsible for building unsafe homes.