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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress his Department has made on improving the safety of residential buildings.

Significant progress has been made on improving the safety of residential buildings in England. Our overriding concern has been to address the immediate safety issues posed by having unsafe cladding on medium and high-rise buildings. We have made £5.1 billion available to address life safety fire risks associated with unsafe cladding in high-rise residential buildings, committed to funding the replacement of unsafe cladding on mid-rise buildings; and agreed with major developers that they will pay for remediation on buildings they were involved with. Currently, 95% of high-rise residential buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding have been remediated or have work underway, and £1.4 billion has been allocated from the Building Safety Fund, for non-ACM cladding, estimated to cover over 97,000 homes. This scheme has reopened, and support is being provided to applicants to accelerate their applications and remediation plans.

The Building Safety Act gained Royal Assent on 28 April 2022 and fundamentally reforms the regulatory system, providing greater assurance that buildings are safe. At its core it clarifies accountability for making sure a building is safe, enhances the assurance provided by the regulator, and strengthens the tools that can be utilised to seek redress. It gives powers for two new regulators - the Building Safety Regulator and the National Regulator for Construction Products who will put in place a stringent new regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings, oversee the performance of public and private building control bodies, and oversee the safety and standards of all buildings and construction products.

A programme of work to strengthen guidance for the industry and competence of professionals is ongoing, including multiple improvements to the Building Regulations and statutory guidance. The use of combustible materials in external walls of new blocks of flats above 18 metres in height is banned and restrictions on their use in new medium-rise residential buildings have been set; guidance to ensure sprinklers are provided as standard on any new residential development above 11 metres has been updated; and consultation on our intention to require multiple staircases on residential buildings above a certain height will start shortly. Better assessments of risk have been enabled by funding and supporting a new standard, PAS 9980, to properly assess risks in buildings proportionately so residents are safe and building owners do not require unnecessary works.