You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Housing association subsidiary applies for private sector cladding fund
Housing group Swan has applied for funding from the government’s £200m private sector Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) fund for a block owned by one of its commercial subsidiaries.
In an update to the financial markets last week, Swan said it had applied for the extra funding as part of remediation work on two of its buildings which were identified as having ACM cladding following the Grenfell Tower fire.
These developments are Fairfield Road, where the freehold of the development is owned by Swan Housing Association, and Streamlight, where the freehold to blocks within the development are owned by either Swan Housing Association or Swan New Homes. Both schemes are in Tower Hamlets, east London.
The company initially put aside £3.2m to deal with making the cladding safe, and later agreed a financial settlement with one of the developers of the blocks.
Because some of the homes were owned by the housing association, it also secured £1.9m of grant funding from the social sector ACM cladding remediation fund.
Its financial statements show that its costs after these deals were taken into account are now around £3.4m.
READ MORE
However, the organisation has said that because some of the homes in the blocks with ACM cladding are owned by its commercial subsidiary Swan New Homes, it is also applying for further grant funding from the private sector ACM fund.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Swan has given a clear commitment to take all action necessary to deal with cladding works regardless of the availability of government support.
“Where we own a freehold block, which does not sit within the housing association, we have made an application to the private sector fund.”
Swan has said that because of the “options open to Swan Group to recover the cost of works undertaken to replace the cladding”, it said it expects the £3.4m cost to the group eventually be lower.
The government announced that it would fully fund the replacement of unsafe ACM cladding on high-rise private residential properties in May.
Many leaseholders had seen the cost of removing the cladding passed on to them as individuals, and had complained that remediation work was not being carried out quickly enough.
The guidance for applying to the fund states that any “responsible entity” is permitted to apply.
