Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 4
2nd Report - Cladding: progress of remediation
Published 12 Jun 2020
Paragraph 25
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Cladding: progress on remediation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We are concerned by the number of exclusions that exist in the Funding Prospectus for the Building Safety Fund, which suggest that the Government is trying to find ways to fit a £3 billion liability into a £1 billion funding pot. In particular, it would be entirely wrong for social landlords to be prohibited from accessing the Building Safety Fund. If local authorities and social housing providers are forced to pay for remediation works from their own budgets, this would have a very detrimental impact on the number of affordable homes they are able to build and to the maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings, while putting an upward pressure on social rents. The Government must ensure that social housing providers have full and equal access to the Building Safety Fund.
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2nd Report - Cladding: progress of remediation (HC 172), paragraph 25, 12 June 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 8 September 2020.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out funding, enforcement and legislative measures, mainly through the draft Building Safety Bill, and responds to each of the Committee's recommendations without adopting its calls for a wider fund or fixed deadlines.
- On funding, the government says public money should not be the only means of remediation, and that building owners "should meet the costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible". The £1bn fund is available in 2020/21 and will incentivise pace.
- On timing, it sets an expectation that building owners will have works on site for removal of unsafe ACM cladding "by the end of 2020", with completion "by the end of 2021". It does not adopt the Committee's broader targets.
- On compulsory purchase, it says no local authority has yet seriously considered CPO, but "we have not ruled out any options, including CPOs, if the pace of remediation remains too slow".
- On historic remedial costs not covered by the £1.6 billion, Michael Wade will "accelerate work on identifying options", with an update "before the final Building Safety Bill is introduced to Parliament".