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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to ensure the safety of people who live in high rise buildings; and if he will make a statement.

In November 2018, the Government introduced a ban on combustible materials in and on the external walls of certain buildings, including blocks of flats more than 18 metres in height. We have more recently consulted on extending the scope of the ban and we will publish the results in due course.

The Government has committed £600 million for the remediation of high-rise residential buildings with unsafe ACM cladding. In March 2020, the £1 billion Building Safety Fund was then announced, aimed at remediating other unsafe cladding types on high-rise residential buildings. For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe ACM cladding, the Government has worked closely with local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to ensure that interim safety measures, where needed, are in place until the cladding is replaced.

We have also published advice from the Independent Expert Advisory Panel on the measures building owners should take to ensure their buildings are safe. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-advice-for-building-owners-including-fire-doors