Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Building Safety Programme

Monday 16 November 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • My Department is in regular contact with local authorities and the Local Government Association as part of the building safety programme.
  • Local authorities play an important role in advancing remediation and are routinely invited to meetings with officials.
  • 4 million has been made available to local authorities to support a data collection exercise looking at external wall systems.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Kenny MacAskill
Context

Discussion about the Building Safety Programme and its implementation.

Question

What recent discussions has my Department had with firefighter unions and local authorities on the Building Safety Programme?

Answer from Christopher Pincher

My Department is in regular contact with local authorities and the Local Government Association as part of the building safety programme. Local authorities play an important role in advancing remediation. They are routinely invited to meetings with officials and are represented on the early adopters group. Eleven local authorities across London attended the Department's remediation summit in September.

Answered
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Q2 Kenny MacAskill
Housing Environment
Context

The Fire Brigades Union and local authorities know what needs to be done, but it is only the Government who actually have the purse strings and can take the action to put homeowners out of the misery that they find themselves in due to changes in building regulations.

Question

Difficulty in borrowing on or selling a home may be understandable when it is caused by unexpected natural events, climatic or otherwise. It is entirely unacceptable, though, when it is caused by obvious Government changes, especially to building regulations. The Fire Brigades Union and local authorities know what needs to be done, but it is only the Government who actually have the purse strings and can take the action to put homeowners out of the misery that they find themselves in. When will that be done?

Answer from Christopher Pincher

It is being done. We have made available £4 million to local authorities to support a data collection exercise looking at external wall systems. Together with the Home Office, we have made £20 million available to increase the capacity and capability of fire and rescue services in their conduct of fire protection activity. We are backing local authorities. We are backing the fire and rescue service.

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