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Conservative MP slams Treasury over private cladding ‘complacency’
Bob Neill, Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, has written to the Treasury criticising its “complacency” in dealing with cladding issues at privately owned residential blocks.
In a letter to Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, and housing secretary James Brokenshire, Mr Neill shared his disappointment with the Treasury’s response to the issue.
The letter came following a parliamentary question from Mr Neil to Ms Truss, asking whether the government would provide direct funding to leaseholders to remove dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from their blocks.
Mr Neil wrote: “You will not be surprised to read that I was disappointed by the answers.
“I believe they demonstrated a worrying complacency in the Treasury on this issue and failed to recognise the urgency of the situation facing residents of [the] Northpoint block of flats in my constituency, not to mention the thousands of other leaseholders like them around the country.”
Mr Neill highlighted issues at Northpoint, where residents face bills of £60,000 per flat for re-cladding and other fire safety works which the building’s owner Citistead had refused to pay.
Mr Neil said: “While good progress has been made in the social sector since the government’s very welcome announcement of £400m to overhaul properties with the sort of ACM cladding that covered Grenfell Tower, thousands of leaseholders in the private sector continue to live in incredibly dangerous buildings.
“Placed in an impossible financial situation, through no fault of their own, they now rely solely on the goodwill of building owners and developers.”
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Inside Housing reported in January that William Procter, director at Citistead, had written to residents stating that the company could not be forced to pay for remediation work and the government’s demands to get building owners to pay for the work was a “hollow threat”.
The developer, which owns the freehold on the ACM-clad building, said that the responsibility for costs lay with the government.
Mr Neill said indicative quotes for remediation work to make the 57 flats at Northpoint safe could cost somewhere between £2.3m and £33.45m.
He said: “[This is] a figure the lessees are simply unable to meet. Many are either first-time buyers or retirees who, collectively, continue to pay just under £5,000 a week for a 24-hour waking watch.”
“Many face financial ruin which, as you can imagine, is having a considerable impact on both their physical and mental health.”
The MP noted that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had announced plans in November 2018 to give local councils power to carry out emergency work to replace cladding. However, despite the commitment by the MHCLG, no council had thus far acted to undertake emergency remedial work.
Mr Neill said: “It has become clear that the government has no levers at its disposal to legally compel buildings owners to pay for the necessary remedial work, a case I made to you in the chamber.
“That is why I believe the onus now regrettably falls on central government to support those affected. Ultimately a failure of regulation is a failure of governance, whoever was in government at the time.”
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.
The Paper Trail: The Failure of Building Regulations
Read our in-depth investigation into how building regulations have changed over time and how this may have contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire:
Never Again campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
LANDLORDS
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
GOVERNMENT
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
