The Housing Secretary announced £3.5 billion on 10 February 2021 as part of a £5 billion multi-year investment in building safety in England.

The Barnett formula is applied to changes in departmental funding so will apply to changes in funding related to this announcement. The level of Barnett consequentials to the Northern Ireland Executive will be confirmed at future fiscal events and spending reviews when the overall level of funding for MHCLG is set.

The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government made an oral statement to the House of Commons on building safety on 10 February 2021.

The Barnett formula is applied to changes in departmental funding. Therefore, the level of Barnett will be confirmed at future fiscal events and spending reviews when there are changes to the level of funding for MHCLG.

The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government made an oral statement to the House of Commons on building safety on 10 February 2021.

As set out in my answer of 22 February, the devolved administrations will receive additional funding through the Barnett formula at future fiscal events and spending reviews, except where new departmental spending is funded by an England-only levy. The devolved administrations can implement their own levies should they choose to do so.

The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government made an oral statement to the House of Commons on building safety on 10 February 2021.

The devolved administrations will receive additional funding through the Barnett formula at future fiscal events and spending reviews, except where new departmental spending is funded by an England-only levy. The devolved administrations can implement their own levies should they choose to do so.

At Spring Budget 2020, £1 billion of additional funding was allocated to cladding remediation in England through the creation of the Building Safety Fund. This generated a Barnett consequential of around £59 million for the Welsh Government. The remaining £600m was funded through existing MHCLG budgets as set at the 2015 Spending Review. The Welsh Government has therefore already received the Barnett consequentials associated with this funding.

HM Treasury’s Block Grant Transparency publication sets out the breakdown of changes in the devolved administrations’ block grants, including all Barnett consequentials, since the 2015 Spending Review.

This is available on the gov.uk website here:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2020

The Government recognises the importance of energy efficiency in tackling fuel poverty.

Through the new £2 billion Green Homes Grant scheme announced by the Chancellor in July, homeowners and landlords across England, including in Bosworth, will be able to apply for vouchers to fund at least two thirds of the cost of upgrading the energy performance of their homes, up to £5,000. Low income households will be eligible for up to 100% government funding, up to £10,000.

Leicestershire County Council also has the opportunity to bid for part of the £500m of the scheme that is being made available to local authorities to directly help low income households.

The scheme could support more than 100,000 green jobs, upgrade more than 600,000 homes, and save households hundreds of pounds a year on their energy bills. This is in addition to existing measures to support improvements in energy efficiency in the homes of those in fuel poverty, such as the Energy Company Obligation (ECO).

The £1 billion Building Safety Fund will be open to social sector landlords and private sector building owners who cannot afford to remediate unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres. The split of funding will depend on the circumstances of the landlord / building owner who make successful applications to the fund when the bidding process opens later this year.

Improving energy efficiency in homes has an important role to play in reducing fuel poverty and tackling climate change.

The Government will continue to support home energy efficiency to 2028, at least at the level of funding of the current Energy Company Obligation scheme. This will drive more than £6 billion of investment in energy efficiency upgrades in homes.

A Future Homes Standard, introduced by 2025, will require new build homes to be future proofed with low carbon heating and world leading levels of energy efficiency.

The Government will announce plans for spending on economic infrastructure, including decarbonisation, in due course.

This summer, the Government consulted on the use of combustible cladding on buildings. Following this consultation, we confirmed on 1 October that we will take forward this ban on all high-rise buildings that contains flats, as well as hospitals, residential care premises and student accommodation, above 18 metres. This ban will be delivered through changes to building regulations guidance and will limit materials available to products achieving a European classification of Class A1 or A2. This ban will apply to all new buildings and refurbishment.

Data is not held centrally on hospitals or other National Health Service buildings that have combustible cladding. NHS trusts are locally responsible for their fire safety within existing legislation, and the NHS fire safety guidance, Firecode, is provided to support them in doing this. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, NHS organisations must, as far as is reasonably practical, make sure that everyone on the premises, or nearby, can escape safely if there is a fire. They will therefore consider the ban on combustible cladding as part of the regular fire risk assessments they carry out on their existing estate.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, National Health Service organisations must, as far as is reasonably practical, ensure that everyone on the premises are safe in a fire situation. Therefore, they must consider the ban on combustible cladding as part of the regular fire risk assessments they carry out on their estate when they have new developments or refurbishment. This will include whether it applies to all walls irrespective of height.

As part of the NHS response to the Grenfell tragedy a review of cladding used on NHS properties was undertaken and 10 were identified with buildings that used Aluminium Composite Material. Mitigation actions were immediately implemented, with the agreement of the Fire and Rescue Services, with plans being put in place for its removal and replacement. The Department is funding this work.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, National Health Service organisations must, as far as is reasonably practical, ensure that everyone on the premises are safe in a fire situation. Therefore, they must consider the ban on combustible cladding as part of the regular fire risk assessments they carry out on their estate when they have new developments or refurbishment. This will include whether it applies to all walls irrespective of height.

As part of the NHS response to the Grenfell tragedy a review of cladding used on NHS properties was undertaken and 10 were identified with buildings that used Aluminium Composite Material. Mitigation actions were immediately implemented, with the agreement of the Fire and Rescue Services, with plans being put in place for its removal and replacement. The Department is funding this work.