I would be very happy to meet the hon. Lady. The noble Lord Greenhalgh, the building safety Minister, and I have been meeting lenders and UK Finance to discuss the EWS1 form and urge them to take a more proportionate, risk-based approach. This form was designed for buildings over 18 metres with external wall systems but is now being used for buildings below 18 metres without cladding.

My hon. Friend will know that my Department is working closely with Northpoint residents who are part of the building safety fund worth £1.6 billion. He is right to draw attention to waking watch issues; it's a scandal with contractors charging outrageous fees for little support.

The Department has already made it clear that a robust process was followed before I became Secretary of State. We will not apologise for investing in communities underinvested by the Labour party. Accounting officer assessments are not routinely published; my officials will consider replying to the Select Committee.

My hon. Friend shares my belief that street homelessness is a crisis not just of housing but of health, mental health, and addiction as well. Our approach from the start of the pandemic has been to bring people off the streets into safe accommodation with wraparound support.

I would be happy to have that conversation. My officials have been engaging with devolved Administrations from all nations of the United Kingdom. Further details will be published at the spending review.

The Government are providing a £10 million cold weather fund to all local authorities, along with a new £15 million protect programme and a £2 million transformation fund. These initiatives aim to provide self-contained accommodation, innovative shelter options, and support for faith and community centres.

Total covid-19 additional funding is £25 million, with an almost £39 million total from across Government. The sales, fees and charges scheme will contribute 75p in the pound for lost income, and a similar scheme is planned for council tax and business rates.

The Government have made £11.5 billion available for 180,000 new affordable homes in five years, a significant proportion of which will be for affordable or social rent. The abolition of the housing revenue account cap allows local authorities to build more social homes if they wish.

The hon. Gentleman has been a fantastic champion of this cause, and I would be delighted to do so.

The situation in Croydon is deeply concerning with catastrophic financial mismanagement. The council has issued a section 114 notice, and we will consider findings from the urgent review concluding later this month.

The funding has been deployed taking deprivation into consideration. As we approach the spending review, I will argue for further funding for local authorities so they are properly and sustainably financed.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the Second Reading of his Bill. We are looking to strengthen the powers and sanctions in respect of both heritage and planning enforcement as part of our White Paper reforms of the planning system. I am sure that he will be lobbying us to ensure that that is part of the wider package.

It is a shame that the hon. Gentleman makes party political points without understanding the facts, because no Minister in my Department has ignored the advice of their officials. The Department produced a robust process, which was followed by myself and any other Minister in the Department, so he should be careful before making wild and false accusations.

I am obliged to my hon. Friend. She is a doughty campaigner for her constituents in Dover, and particularly, in this case, in Deal. She will know that the national planning policy framework makes it clear that local authorities should make provision for infrastructure, including water supply and energy, through their strategic planning authorities. As to what further we can do, our White Paper on planning reform proposes an infrastructure levy that will get that sort of infrastructure that she refers to in place at the get-go so that communities get not just the housing they need but the infrastructure to go with it.

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we are very much sticking to our promise to support local authorities. We have already given local authorities more than £7 billion since the start of the pandemic, with the sales fees and charges and the business rates and council tax schemes. We are approaching £10 billion of additional support for local authorities, and in his case, in Ealing, it is £30 million, so he is quite wrong to say that we are not supporting his constituents.

I am happy to look into what the hon. Lady says, but she is mistaken. This party is doing quite the opposite. We are legislating to embed biodiversity net gain as an essential part of the planning system.