Parliamentary activity

Answering body: Home Office

The Government is clear that building safety is the responsibility of building owners. To help increase the pace of remediation, the Government has made £5 billion of taxpayer funding available for the remediation of unsafe cladding on high rise residential buildings.

Across 2020/21 and 2021/22, the Government has also allocated around £50m in additional taxpayer funding to address the fire safety issues that arose from the Grenfell Tower fire. The majority of this funding has been allocated to FRAs and the NFCC to:

strengthen protection capacity and capability;

deliver the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 operational recommendations;

deliver the Building Risk Review programme; and establish a central strategic leadership hub

Decisions on how to allocate their resources to deliver their statutory duties most effectively is a matter for individual Fire and Rescue Authorities, based on their assessment of local risk.

Overall fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.3 billion in 2021/22. Standalone Fire and Rescue Authorities will see an increase in core spending power of 2.6 per cent in cash terms in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21.

The London Fire Brigade is part of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and it is a matter for the Mayor to set the budget for the GLA’s functional bodies, including the London Fire Commissioner.

The total resource reserves held by standalone fire and rescue authorities at March 2019 was £538m.This is an increase of £4.7m or 1% compared with March 2015 and is equivalent to 39% of their core spending power.

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Home Office will introduce a Fire Safety Bill in early 2020 which will put beyond doubt that owners or managers of multi-occupied residential buildings need to fully consider and mitigate the risks of external wall systems and front doors to individual flats.

The Fire Safety Bill will create a firm foundation to enable the Government to lay regulations to deliver the legislative recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report, including in relation to personal evacuation plans for residents whose ability to evacuate may be compromised. A consultation on the Grenfell Tower Phase 1 legislative recommendations is planned for spring 2020.

In addition, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has committed to bringing forward a Building Safety Bill. In our consultation, Building a Safer Future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system, we set out proposals to create an enhanced safety framework for high-rise residential buildings. This included proposals for residents of buildings in scope of this new regime to receive key safety information about their building, which would include details about how to notify their ‘building safety manager’ if their ability to evacuate may be compromised. We will publish the response to our consultation shortly and will introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity.