This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Petition Implement select committee recommendations on cladding to protect leaseholders
Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders are trapped in their homes facing bankruptcy from life-changing bills for waking watches, alarms and fire safety remediation. We want Government to protect them by implementing the Select Committee's 'Cladding: progress of remediation' report recommendations.
More details
Recommendations include but are not limited to:
- Increasing the Building Safety Fund to address all fire safety defects in every high-risk residential building
- Providing funding for interim fire safety measures, such as waking watches and fire alarms
- Ensuring those responsible for the crisis contribute to the fund
- Use of CPO powers to take direct ownership of the freehold of buildings with serious fire safety defects
- Putting in place a much faster, fairer system than the EWS1 process
This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months
Related activity
Urgent Question asked in House of Commons about the removal of dangerous cladding
On Tuesday 24 November there was an Urgent Question put to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, asking if he would make a statement on whether leaseholders are expected to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding from their homes.
You can watch the response from Christopher Pincher MP, Minister for Housing, and further questions on the topic here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/98e1ca38-ef74-48ed-a82c-3dae8c2334e5?in=12:40:48&out=14:10:00
What is an Urgent Question?
If an urgent or important matter arises which an MP believes requires an immediate answer from a government minister, they may apply to ask an urgent question.
Find out more about Urgent Questions here: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/urgent-questions/
MPs to debate the Building Safety Fund
MPs will debate the Building Safety Fund on Wednesday 20 January in the main House of Commons chamber. This is an Adjournment debate, determined by the Speaker.
Adjournment debates are half-hour debates at the end of each day's sitting. They are an opportunity for an individual backbench MP to raise an issue and receive a response from the relevant Minister, however they do not end in a vote nor can they change the law.
The debate will start at around 7.00pm, after the conclusion of the humble address on the Electoral Commission.
Watch here on Wednesday: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/63b12edb-9f6a-4438-8a0e-5910e245c1c2
Find out more about how Adjournment debates work: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/debates/adjournment/
MPs to debate protecting tenants and leaseholders from unsafe cladding
MPs will debate protecting tenants and leaseholders from unsafe cladding on Monday 1 February in the main House of Commons chamber. This is an Opposition day debate, on a motion determined by the Leader of the Opposition.
Opposition days are days allocated in the House of Commons for the discussion of subjects chosen by the opposition (non-government) parties.
Watch the debate here: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/a6ac5191-f789-42ba-a63f-71e9c65ffbb6
Find out more about Opposition days: https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/opposition-days/
Ministerial statement on building safety
On Wednesday 10 February, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick MP gave a statement to the House of Commons on building safety.
The Government have also published further information on new measures to bring an end to unsafe cladding and provide reassurance to homeowners and confidence to the housing market: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-bring-an-end-to-unsafe-cladding-with-multi-billion-pound-intervention
You can watch the statement here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/1145a875-5853-49d1-b606-a7abb5e83272?in=12:40:20
Read the transcript here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-02-10/debates/010B9751-BCBE-48F5-AEEC-6F3416777D73/BuildingSafety
Ministerial statements are a way for Ministers to bring an important matter to the attention of the House, often at short notice. You can find out more about them here: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/statements/
MPs to debate residential leaseholders and interim fire safety costs
MPs will debate residential leaseholders and interim fire safety costs on Wednesday 10 March in Westminster Hall.
This will be a general debate. General debates allow MPs to debate important issues, however they do not end in a vote nor can they change the law.
The debate will start at 9.25am and last up to an hour and a half.
Watch the debate: https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/cc3ee26b-ec8a-4ba1-9ca9-431f9a21501d
Find out more about how Parliamentary debates work: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/debates/
Further information
The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on "Leasehold high-rise flats: who pays for fire safety work?", which you can read here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8244/
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee continues to investigate cladding issues
A group of MPs called the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee continues to investigate issues relating to cladding remediation.
On 21 May the Chair of the Committee, Clive Betts MP, wrote to the Government asking what they were doing to support the implementation of new Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RCIS) guidance on whether an EWS1 form should be required for a particular building, and what action the Government would take if mortgage lenders continue to require EWS1 forms for buildings that do not meet RICS criteria.
You can read the full letter here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/5990/documents/67920/default/
This correspondence follows two reports by the Committee on cladding remediation, which have looked at progress in removing potentially dangerous cladding from high-rise and high-risk buildings, the adequacy of funding by the Government, and the steps that are being taken to ensure that leaseholders and tenants are protected from bearing the costs of historical building safety defects.
You can read the Committee's first report on cladding remediation, published in June 2020, here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1438/documents/13153/default/
The Government responded to the Committee's report in September 2020, and you can read their response here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2404/documents/46718/default/
You can read the Committee's follow-up report, published in April 2021, here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/5702/documents/56234/default/
The Committee has also scrutinised draft legislation to improve building and fire safety. You can read their pre-legislative scrutiny report of the Building Safety Bill here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/3605/documents/35262/default/
Follow the Committee on Twitter for updates: @CommonsHCLG
What is the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee?
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is a group of MPs which scrutinises the policy, administration and spending of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
It's a cross-party Committee and is independent of the Government. You can find out more about the Committee on the UK Parliament website:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/17/housing-communities-and-local-government-committee
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is a ‘select committee’. Find out how Select Committees work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_2RDuDs44c