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Building safety costs mean one in 10 affordable homes will not be built, survey finds
More than one in 10 new affordable homes planned by housing associations can no longer be built due to the costs of making buildings safe following the Grenfell Tower fire, with social rent homes taking the biggest hit.
A new survey of 106 housing associations by the National Housing Federation (NHF) found that 61 landlords have discovered dangerous materials on their blocks since the Grenfell tragedy.
The government has so allocated £5bn of funding to cover the costs of remediation work for leaseholders and shared owners to remove dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings, but no funding was made available for blocks where social tenants live or for works needed beyond cladding.
Unless funding is made available, the housing associations surveyed said they will have to cut plans for 12,900 out of 116,777 new affordable homes over the next five years to prioritise spending on building safety.
They said that social rent homes will be the worst affected because they build the majority of that tenure with their own income, rather than with government grants.
The research also found that mounting building safety costs are affecting housing associations’ ability to invest in the upkeep of the homes they already own.
Those surveyed said they are having to divert £730m away from routine maintenance work, such as upgrading bathrooms or kitchens, to pay for essential building safety work.
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In October last year, a survey of the country’s largest housing associations by Inside Housing found that they were estimated to spend £1.2bn on fire safety in the next five years.
Earlier this year, the G15 group of London’s biggest landlords said it expected the bill for its members to hit £3.6bn by 2036.
Housing associations estimate they will have to spend more than £10bn to make all their buildings safe over the next decade.
The NHF is calling on the government to fund the upfront costs of all fire safety works on behalf of social housing residents and leaseholders and to claim the money back from “those responsible, such as private developers and manufacturers”.
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said the research showed the building safety costs “will be borne by the poorest people in our society for many years to come”.
Ms Henderson added: “Not-for-profit housing associations are putting their residents’ safety first, but without funding they are left with no choice but to divert money away from building new social housing for those most in need.
“It is simply not right that people who are at no fault and on the lowest incomes in this country are left to shoulder these costs.
“Those responsible for this crisis, developers of unsafe homes and manufacturers of dangerous materials, must be made to pay.
“In the meantime, we urge the government to do the right thing and fully fund the upfront costs of making buildings safe.”
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