In my response earlier to my noble friend I talked about ELMS, the environmental land management scheme, and I will provide a bit more detail about that. The Countryside Stewardship higher-tier scheme provides a number of ongoing actions to help create water storage and prevent flooding, including actions on arable land and grassland to mitigate flooding and create flood-plain storage. Capital grants are available to support natural flood

management, which can improve soil health, as I mentioned previously. Together, the Countryside Stewardship higher-tier scheme, the sustainable farming incentive and the ELMS capital grant schemes provide support to help plan, plant and manage agroforestry systems, wood pasture and so on, which also helps to hold water.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees is not normally shared publicly.

The Building Safety Act protects qualifying leaseholders from the costs of professional services relating to relevant defects. This would include any Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW) undertaken in relation to a relevant defect, including to ascertain whether such a defect exists. Where a building is enrolled in the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) or the Building Safety Fund (BSF), funding for an FRAEW can be provided.

Developers who sign the developer remediation contract are obliged to obtain an assessment of life-critical fire safety defects caused by the original design, construction or refurbishment of the building. Those developers must also use all reasonable endeavours to enter into a works contract with the building owner/responsible entity and agree the plan for remediation. Published data from November 2023 shows that developers have yet to obtain a Works Assessment for 1,277 (28%) of the 4,540 buildings for which they have accepted responsibility under the developer remediation contract (for reporting purposes, ‘Works Assessments’ include but are not limited to Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls and may include other assessments e.g., Fire Risk Assessment). The Department is closely monitoring progress and holding regular discussions with developers to enforce compliance with their contractual obligations. All developers who fail to comply with their obligations face significant consequences, and members of the statutory Responsible Actors Scheme that the Government launched in July 2023 would face planning and building control prohibitions.

The Building Safety Act protects qualifying leaseholders from the costs of professional services relating to relevant defects. This would include any Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW) undertaken in relation to a relevant defect, including to ascertain whether such a defect exists. Where a building is enrolled in the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) or the Building Safety Fund (BSF), funding for an FRAEW can be provided.

Developers who sign the developer remediation contract are obliged to obtain an assessment of life-critical fire safety defects caused by the original design, construction or refurbishment of the building. Those developers must also use all reasonable endeavours to enter into a works contract with the building owner/responsible entity and agree the plan for remediation. Published data from November 2023 shows that developers have yet to obtain a Works Assessment for 1,277 (28%) of the 4,540 buildings for which they have accepted responsibility under the developer remediation contract (for reporting purposes, ‘Works Assessments’ include but are not limited to Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls and may include other assessments e.g., Fire Risk Assessment). The Department is closely monitoring progress and holding regular discussions with developers to enforce compliance with their contractual obligations. All developers who fail to comply with their obligations face significant consequences, and members of the statutory Responsible Actors Scheme that the Government launched in July 2023 would face planning and building control prohibitions.

The Building Safety Act protects qualifying leaseholders from the costs of professional services relating to relevant defects. This would include any Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW) undertaken in relation to a relevant defect, including to ascertain whether such a defect exists. Where a building is enrolled in the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) or the Building Safety Fund (BSF), funding for an FRAEW can be provided.

Developers who sign the developer remediation contract are obliged to obtain an assessment of life-critical fire safety defects caused by the original design, construction or refurbishment of the building. Those developers must also use all reasonable endeavours to enter into a works contract with the building owner/responsible entity and agree the plan for remediation. Published data from November 2023 shows that developers have yet to obtain a Works Assessment for 1,277 (28%) of the 4,540 buildings for which they have accepted responsibility under the developer remediation contract (for reporting purposes, ‘Works Assessments’ include but are not limited to Fire Risk Appraisals of External Walls and may include other assessments e.g., Fire Risk Assessment). The Department is closely monitoring progress and holding regular discussions with developers to enforce compliance with their contractual obligations. All developers who fail to comply with their obligations face significant consequences, and members of the statutory Responsible Actors Scheme that the Government launched in July 2023 would face planning and building control prohibitions.

As of 25 October 2022, 49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical, fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. We have published the names of the developers who have signed the pledge on (attached) gov.uk.

The Government published a draft of the developer remediation contract on 13 July 2022 and has since received comments and held discussions on the draft with various parties. We are in advanced negotiations with developers and other stakeholders to finalise the contract, which will turn the commitments made in the pledge into a legally binding agreement. We are also in ongoing discussions with several developers who have not yet signed the pledge and will invite them to sign the finalised self-remediation contract. We will publish the final form of the contract as soon as possible, at which point developers will be asked to sign the contract. We also intend to publish the names of the developers who sign the contract.

We have made clear that developers who fail to do the right thing face significant commercial consequences. In August, we made commencement regulations that are an important step towards giving Ministers powers to stop developers who fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission and from being granted building control sign-off.

As of 25 October 2022, 49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical, fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. We have published the names of the developers who have signed the pledge on (attached) gov.uk.

The Government published a draft of the developer remediation contract on 13 July 2022 and has since received comments and held discussions on the draft with various parties. We are in advanced negotiations with developers and other stakeholders to finalise the contract, which will turn the commitments made in the pledge into a legally binding agreement. We are also in ongoing discussions with several developers who have not yet signed the pledge and will invite them to sign the finalised self-remediation contract. We will publish the final form of the contract as soon as possible, at which point developers will be asked to sign the contract. We also intend to publish the names of the developers who sign the contract.

We have made clear that developers who fail to do the right thing face significant commercial consequences. In August, we made commencement regulations that are an important step towards giving Ministers powers to stop developers who fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission and from being granted building control sign-off.

As of 25 October 2022, 49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical, fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. We have published the names of the developers who have signed the pledge on (attached) gov.uk.

The Government published a draft of the developer remediation contract on 13 July 2022 and has since received comments and held discussions on the draft with various parties. We are in advanced negotiations with developers and other stakeholders to finalise the contract, which will turn the commitments made in the pledge into a legally binding agreement. We are also in ongoing discussions with several developers who have not yet signed the pledge and will invite them to sign the finalised self-remediation contract. We will publish the final form of the contract as soon as possible, at which point developers will be asked to sign the contract. We also intend to publish the names of the developers who sign the contract.

We have made clear that developers who fail to do the right thing face significant commercial consequences. In August, we made commencement regulations that are an important step towards giving Ministers powers to stop developers who fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission and from being granted building control sign-off.