Building Safety Crisis

We are in the middle of a Building Safety Crisis and many discussions about it often overlook the scale of the problem. Minimal thought has been given by the Government to the huge volume of buildings needing to be regulated. The absence of data relating to those buildings and their affected residents is the biggest issue. 

FOI Request to MHCLG

We wanted to understand exactly what data is being collected by the Government. So we sent this Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 16th December 2020:

Dear Sir/Madam

Please confirm answers to the following questions as soon as possible:

1. Are MHCLG collecting data on individual Bankruptcies where Building Safety related interim costs or remediation costs were a contributing factor?

2. Are MHCLG collecting data on individual Suicides or significant mental illness where Building Safety related interim costs or remediation costs were a contributing factor?

3. Are MHCLG collecting data on individual Mortgage Arrears where Building Safety related interim costs or remediation costs were a contributing factor?

4. Are MHCLG collecting data on individual (anticipated or actual) Forfeiture proceedings where Building Safety related interim costs or remediation costs were a contributing factor?

5. Have MHCLG asked all Local Authority Housing teams to assess the potential increased demand on Social Housing in their area as a result of Questions 1-4 (above) 

Yes or No answers will be sufficient at this stage.

Thank you

Having received no response by 11th February 2021, we chased and received a holding response, followed by this letter on 22nd February 2021:

Although not entirely unexpected, we are somewhat dumbfounded by this response. How can policymaking without any impact assessment or measurement be justified?