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Leaseholders face ‘triple whammy’ in building safety crisis, say MPs
Leaseholders dealing with the cladding crisis are facing a “triple whammy” of problems, MPs warned in a commons debate.
In a debate held yesterday on high-rise social housing and reducing fire risk, Andy Slaughter, the Labour MP for Hammersmith, said he found it “difficult” to find a previous crisis which had “such an impact on so many people”.
He added: “It is a triple whammy. There is the fear of living in an unsafe building with one’s life potentially at risk; there are the huge, unaffordable costs I have already mentioned; and there is the extra feeling of being trapped because one’s property may have a nil value, so it is impossible to move on with one’s life, start a family and so on.”
Shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell said that the cladding scandal had led to a “total breakdown” in confidence in most tall and multi-storey buildings across the country and decried the exclusion of social landlords from the £5bn Building Safety Fund.
Data released by the government in June showed that nearly half of all social landlords’ applications to the fund had been rejected.
“They [the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] have managed to get a £5bn fund from the Treasury, which I applaud them for because that is not a small amount of money by any means, but they are not giving effect to the money as they stand back and watch costs soar while the remediation works required get out of control,” Ms Powell said.
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“They limit the scope and the timetables, and they are not doing anything to ensure certification and assurance. Leaving it to the market and those that created the crisis in the first place will not resolve anything. As we have heard, social landlords are inexplicably excluded from the fund.
“We now face a total breakdown in the approach to risk. What are reasonable risks? Who decides that? Who will certify risk proportionately, and who can ensure that insurers will insure reasonably and that lenders lend? Nobody is standing by to do that at the moment.”
Mr Slaughter also argued that the fund is falling short in compensating housing associations for the cost of remedial works.
He said: “The 12 biggest housing associations will spend an estimated £3bn over the next decade [...]
“Twelve housing associations will spend £3bn when the government’s total building safety fund stands at £5bn, and the National Housing Federation says the total bill for the sector will be £10bn.
“Clarion told me that it expects to receive £5.4m from the BSF of the £150m it will spend. That shortfall is significant, not only for the association as a housebuilder and landlord, as we shall see, but for its leaseholders.”
Jonathan Gullis, the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, urged councils and fire services across the country to consider retrofitting sprinklers into buildings.
He stated that the local Stoke-on-Trent council and fire service had worked together to retrofit sprinklers in all high-rise blocks of flats managed by the council’s own housing company.
He said: “Sprinklers save lives. People are only half as likely to be injured in a dwelling fire where sprinklers are present, and sprinklers greatly reduce the chance of serious injury, with the data showing that people are 22% less likely to require hospital treatment if they are in a fire that is controlled by a sprinkler system.”
Representing the government, Luke Hall, the regional growth and local government minister, said that a package of changes within the Building Safety Bill will ensure that issues identified in current building and fire-safety regimes are rectified.
He said: “The new regime will allow fire and structural hazards to be effectively and proportionately managed, mitigated and remedied, through effective steps that consider both safety and costs [...]
“I know that there is a united desire to ensure that those living in high-rise social housing feel safe in their homes. We will restore the right for everyone in our country to live somewhere that is safe, decent and secure—a place that they are proud to call home.”
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